RWBY: Rifts of Fate
by ShadowofAxios
Summary: Silver, Ash, Bai, and Rowan are transported to Remnant. There they have their own adventures with Ruby and the gang. All while Silver's true heritage is uncovered, and the movements of the White Fang change, with mysterious figures operating from the shadows. I own none of the RWBY characters along with RWBY itself, all of these are owned by RoosterTeeth and Monty Oum.
1. A Strike of Fate

**This is my first fanfic. Please feel free to review and give me some suggestions. This will be an ongoing series.**

"Your big opportunity may be right where you are now."- Napoleon Hill

**Chapter 1: _A Strike of Fate_**

**Normal POV**

"Why are they always late when I ask them to meet me somewhere?" Silver wondered aloud. Silver Aurelius, a 17-year-old boy with golden eyes and black hair that had a silver streak running through it, and no it wasn't artificial. He ran his hand through his silvered hair, gained early in life, in agitation. He and his three friends were supposed to be getting together to hang out, and as time went on it looked like a thunderstorm was about to start. School had gone on break a couple days ago and they had arranged to party with some other friends of theirs.

_Looks like it might be an inside day today_, Silver thought.

"Hey, Silver!" someone yelled. Silver turned and looked to see who had called. He saw one of his best friends, Ash Winters approaching with an air of excitement and usual hint of pride. If someone thought Silver's hair was strange considering the usual non-dyed hair colors, Ash was something else. He had completely grey hair despite being only 17 and not much stress to cause something like it. His eyes were an ice blue and the way he held himself gave him an air of confidence and seeming nobility. However, Silver knew he could sometimes throw that away in favor of more important things.

"How's it going?" Silver asked.

"Not bad," Ash replied and continued, "Still waiting for the other two?"

"Yeah, I'm actually surprised they aren't here before you," he said jokingly.

At that moment two more approached from the opposite direction Ash had come from, one was Asian, and the other was Caucasian.

"Finally made it!" the Asian said, smirking. This was Bai Ryder, youngest of the group by a couple months, but also the smartest. He had snow-white hair and brown eyes twinkling from a knowingly sarcastic comment ready to be made. The other was Rowan Chase. He had short black hair with red streaks and piercing green eyes. He was laughing at the annoyed look that flashed across Silver's face.

"I thought you might get that look Silver," Rowan said, "We decided to get here a little late just to see how annoyed you got and it was worth those boring minutes waiting!"

Silver sighed. He should have known their being late was intentional. He did however smile because of just how well they knew him. While they had been standing there the clouds had been getting thicker and darker without them noticing. They were discussing many topics when finally they reached the most recent topic from the past week, RWBY.

"So the finale to RWBY volume 2 was pretty cool wasn't it?" Rowan asked.

"Yeah, they finally showed off Team CFVY's skills and Emerald's weapons," Ash said.

"I was more interested in what came after the credits," Bai said, "The mystery woman is rumored to be Yang's mom or of some other close relation."

They all looked at Silver, surprised at his not making a comment, being the group's biggest RWBY fan. Silver, however, was not completely paying attention, rather he was studying the sky above, wondering if the rain would start soon…

Snapping his fingers in front of Silver, Ash asked, "Hey Silver, are you doing alright? We've been discussing RWBY and you haven't said anything, that's not like you."

Silver having snapped out of his trance, replied, "Sorry, just feeling a little uneasy at the moment, I have a strange feeling something is about to happen and I don't know why…"

Just then, a roar of thunder reached them and the sky sparked. The group of four looked up just in time to see a strange, red bolt of lightning come down and hit them, causing their vision to go black. The flash subsided and revealed that the four had disappeared leaving a strange image of a shattered sphere on the ground…

**With Professor Ozpin**

Professor Ozpin was sitting in his office doing paperwork and looking through the lists of potential students to be accepted at his school for huntsmen-in-training, Beacon Academy. He was calmly looking through multiple files when his computer went off reporting massive energy readings. He suddenly became much more alert as he went through the locations and turned to the window as he watched two separate lightning bolts strike in the city, one in the courtyard of Beacon, and the last, without damaging anything, seemingly striking in the middle of his office. His eyes widened when he saw what had been deposited in the middle of his office. He saw a boy with black hair and a strange streak of silver going through it in a black hoodie that had a gold looking color on the inside of the hood. He stared in surprise for a moment before messaging Professors Goodwitch, Port, and Oobleck to investigate the other locations where the lightning had struck in case there were more. He walked around his desk and gently shook the boy awake. The boy opened his eyes to reveal a bright, golden color that was stunning to Ozpin. As the boy's eyes finally focused on him, Ozpin saw a flare of recognition in his eyes and wondered where he had come from. The professor then asked one simple question to the boy who was now looking at Ozpin and his surroundings with a confused look, "Who are you and how did you get here?"

The boy then replied, "My name is Silver Aurelius, and I have no idea how I got here."

**There is your introduction! More chapters will follow! It may take a little while after Chapter 2 as school is starting back up though.**


	2. Welcome to Remnant

**I was originally going to release this at a later date, but with the way things are going, I might as well just post it and keep working on chapter 3. Enjoy!**

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><p>"Everything is theoretically impossible, until it is done." – Robert A. Heinbern<p>

Chapter 2: Welcome to Remnant

**Normal POV**

Silver sat across from the person who had claimed to be Professor Ozpin, Headmaster at Beacon Academy, and couldn't believe his eyes. Either this was the most elaborate practical joke ever, or he had really been teleported to Remnant. Ozpin had explained to him how he had been the last to come in a flash of lightning that had somehow come on a perfectly clear day. He was told that he had sent out three teachers to investigate the other three points where lightning had struck. Silver wondered if his friends were alright…

**Ash's POV**

I woke up in front of what appeared to be a statue that looked vaguely familiar, but he couldn't seem to place it. It appeared to be two figures with weapons, standing triumphantly over a monster coming out of a cave…

"_Where have I seen this statue before?"_ I thought.

I kept examining the statue when I heard someone cough behind me, making me jump. Standing behind me was a woman with blond hair in a bun with a curl coming down the right side of her face with bright green eyes, standing a few inches taller than myself, and wearing glasses, a white, long-sleeved shirt, a black business skirt and black boots with a brown heel. The moment I saw her, and finally recognized her and the outfit, I felt the blood drain from my face.

"_Is that Glynda Goodwitch?"_ I thought, shocked.

"Yes that is my name, but how do you know my name?" she asked.

I silently cursed myself for being so dumb and accidentally saying my thoughts aloud, that was absolutely out of character for me.

Pulling myself together I asked, "Where am I?"

She simply started walking away and said, "You are at Beacon Academy and the Headmaster would like to see you to discuss how that came to be."

I nodded and followed her wondering where the others were.

**Bai's POV**

As I awoke, I groaned from the slight pain from lying on the hard ground for what was probably a long time. After I had stood up, I looked around and got my bearings. I appeared to be in the middle of a city, with buildings, streets, and people I had never seen before. I turned around and saw I had been lying just outside what appeared to be a shop of some sort. I read the sign that had the name of the shop on it. It read as "From Dust Till Dawn". I looked at it, a spark of both curiosity and recognition in my eye.

Then I thought, _"No way. Am I where I think I am?"_

I was about to walk into the shop when a bold voice caused me to pause.

"Hello there! You seem a little out of place here. Would you happen to have just arrived a few minutes ago?"

I turned and saw a man a few inches shorter than me with gray hair and a matching mustache. He wore a red coat with gold accents and some sort of cravat with a white shirt underneath. He had his dark maroon pants tucked into his black knee-high boots. I very quickly recognized him once my mind had moved to the right mindset. Professor Port… I'm guessing he was looking for me, but why?

"You could say I arrived, but I don't know if that would really explain it all, do you?" I asked him.

"I do suppose that may be a bit 'simplified' to say the least, but in the interest of not drawing too much attention, let's leave it at that for now," he said.

"Alright," I said, "now that that's settled, what do you want from me?"

"I would like you to come with me," he said, "The Headmaster at Beacon Academy would like to talk to you about how you came to be here."

Figuring I didn't have any better options, I decided to go with him and see what the "headmaster" had in store for me. I dimly wondered if anyone else was brought here as well.

**Rowan's POV**

Waking up in the middle of what looked like some sort of docks, I decided this was not the best place I had ever woken up. I looked around, dazed from the sudden black out that had occurred what seemed like seconds before. I saw crates being loaded on and off of large freighters and saw that there was a strange snowflake-like symbol on a lot of the containers.

"_Why do those look so familiar?" _I wondered, looking for clues that tell me where I was.

I had the strangest feeling that I had seen this place before somewhere, I just couldn't put my finger on it. That's when I saw the name of the company on one of the large crates, and that's when it finally clicked. The name on the side of the crate read simply, the "Schnee Dust Company".

"_Well this is just perfect,"_ I thought.

I was about to start walking off when a green and white blur blew past me and stopped right in front of me causing me to jump back. When the blur had stopped, it revealed itself to be a man with green hair, wearing circular lensed glasses, a white dress shirt with a yellow tie, and black pants and shoes. He was holding a coffee cup and just based off this information I guessed him to be Professor Oobleck. He stood a few inches taller than me and almost seemed to be examining me before finally speaking.

"Why hello there my dear boy! You don't seem to be from around here! If I were to wager, I'd say that you came down in that strike of lightning several minutes ago?" He said extremely quickly, not missing a beat.

I blinked before saying, "I don't know about coming down in lightning, but I only just woke up here a few minutes ago and I don't know how I got here if that's what you were asking."

He nodded and started off in the direction of what looked to be a city street, before saying, "Well come along then, we best be off to see the headmaster, he wanted to see you and discuss the circumstances of your arrival. I'm sure we'll have this figured out in no time!"

Sighing from the speed at which he was talking, I went to follow him as I wondered where the others were.

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><p><strong>Normal POV, Ozpin's Office<strong>

About half an hour later, the four teens were finally gathered together in Professor Ozpin's office with the four teachers. Silver, preferring to wait until his friends had arrived before beginning their recollection and backstory leading up to their teleportation to Remnant, had not given Ozpin much more than their names and ages.

After a few moments of silence, Ozpin took a sip of his coffee before finally asking, "Soooo, would you boys mind telling me what you know about how you ended up where you were and where you came from?"

The four boys sat in silence until Silver decided to speak and said, "It's a long story that I'm not sure you'll believe."

Ozpin leaned forward and said, "Try me."

And so, they told the teachers of their plans of their break and how the storm had brewing, Silver described the way he had been examining the clouds because he had felt something was off, and they described how they had all looked up in time to see a red flash of lightning and blacking out before waking up in their respective locations.

While Professors Goodwitch and Port looked shocked at the revelation that they were all from an alternate dimension, Oobleck and Ozpin looked thoughtful.

Ozpin asked for more information on their dimension and proof that what they were saying was true. Silver then stood up and dug through his backpack, which had survived the trip to Remnant. He had forgotten to clean it out of his school supplies and had taken out a history textbook, which he then handed to Ozpin while also putting his hand in his pocket and pulling out is smartphone.

After letting Ozpin examine both, he said, "Our world is very much different from yours in many ways, large and small."

The four then started taking turns explaining key points of Earth's history and information.

"There is no record of any faunus or Grimm having ever lived on Earth," Bai said.

"There are about 200 different countries on our world with a total population of about 7 billion and a few hundred major languages spoken throughout the world," Rowan said, shocking the teachers at the number of people.

"Documented human history goes back at least 3000 years, with that book holding about 500 years worth of information." Ash said.

Silver delivered something more shocking than the population number and admittedly, more barbaric than their world when he said, "Because there has been no interaction between humans and faunus on our world, human found new reasons to hate, such as skin color, religion, and personal dispositions, all of which had often led to persecution and war."

This last piece of information was met with silence as the teachers mulled that one over.

Finally, Ozpin spoke, saying, "Well, this certainly has been an eventful evening, but I feel I need to ask, what do you plan on doing now?"

The four boys looked at each other and then the other three looked at Silver who just inwardly groaned and said, "We don't really know, we don't exactly know enough about this world to have a smooth life, without a certain amount of… help."

Ozpin seemed to think about this for a few moments and seemed to come to a decision. He said, "How would you feel about attending my school?"

All four boys froze, their brains going into overdrive as excitement and uncertainty flashed across all of their faces. When they had all come to a silent decision, they looked at each other and nodded.

Silver, seeing the vote was unanimous, said, "We accept, but I do hope you realize that we are more than a little under equipped?"

Ozpin smiled a little and said, "I'm sure that can be remedied, meet me here, in my office, tomorrow morning and we will begin helping you to prepare for the coming year. Until then, you four should get some rest. Professor Goodwitch if you would please escort them to a temporary dorm room, we can talk about this later."

Ash turned back as they were leaving and said, "Thank you sir."

Getting similar words of appreciation from the other three, Ozpin smile a little more and said, "You are welcome, and welcome to Beacon."

The boys returned his smile and then the elevator shut, taking the boys and Professor Goodwitch down to the ground floor to head to the dormitories.

Ozpin turned and looked out his window, wondering if he had made the right decision.

"_Welcome to Beacon indeed,"_ he thought.

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><p><strong>Hope you enjoyed that! Sorry for the jumpiness of this chapter, but you can expect a longer and most likely less jumpy chapter next time.<strong>


	3. Familiar Faces

**Just in case you didn't notice, I will be starting each chapter off with a quote that I feel summarizes at least one part of the chapter, it's not a spoiler, but I am trying to keep to the general themes and feel of RWBY, so I will continue with this until I either run out, or I just need to concentrate on cranking out another couple chapters. Please enjoy this chapter of RWBY: Rifts of Fate.**

"Every human walks around with a certain kind of sadness. They may not wear it on their sleeves, but it's there if you look deep." – Taraji P. Henson

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><p><strong>Chapter 3: Familiar Faces<strong>

**Silver's POV**

Two months… That's how much time has gone by since Ash, Bai, Rowan, and I had accepted Professor Ozpin's offer to attend Beacon Academy. The very next day, he and the other teachers had help the four of us unlock our aura, then we started to train. Stopping only to sleep and eat, we forged our weapons. Rowan shocked all of the professors when he made what was quite possibly the most powerful sniper rifle ever seen in Remnant, and he somehow handled the recoil extremely well. To top it off, he had cleverly hidden a sword underneath the barrel, allowing for close range combat when necessary. Bai had what was quite possibly one of the most ingenious weapons I had ever seen. He had constructed a bow that used a strand of hard light as the string and was able to fire either his dust-infused trick arrows or arrows of light, provided his weapon didn't run out of dust. To top it all off, he built it so that he could split it at the middle to make two short swords. Ash, being his unpredictable self, made a weapon that seemed unorthodox for fighting Grimm but soon proved us all wrong. He built a pair of wrist blades infused with dust that could pretty much instantly kill a weaker Grimm. The truly amazing part was the improved guns attached to each blade. All he has to do is flick his finger in a certain way or flex his hand in a certain way and suddenly there is semi-auto fire peppering his target. My weapons aren't all that special outside of the fact that my weapons aren't the traditional combo weapons. I have two one-handed katanas and two revolvers. One katana has a matte black blade with a white hilt, while the other is a bright white blade with a black hilt and they can both conduct my aura very well. The revolvers followed the same theme, except they also use colors represented in my name. One is black and silver, and the other is white and gold.

After two weeks of intense combat training and trips into the Emerald Forest, our semblances started to manifest. I had power over lightning, attacking and moving with it, Ash discovered that he was capable of phasing through solid objects as well as letting non-dust attacks go through him, Bai found he had a certain amount of control over light, creating shields, flashes, and occasionally lasers, and Rowan discovered that he could turn invisible as well as an object he is touching invisible.

With our semblances manifested, and our weapons being close to mastered, we trained hard to make sure we were ready for the coming year. We could only hope we didn't start out too far behind…

I rolled out of the way and avoided the dust arrow as it flew past. It was starting to get difficult to get close to Bai as he kept firing arrow after arrow trying to take me down.

"_I need to end this fast,"_ I thought looking at my half-full aura gauge. Bai was at about the same level thanks to some well placed hits early on, but was now on the offensive.

I needed to find a way to get close or knock his guard down long enough to get close. I dove behind cover and thought for a couple seconds before smiling. I drew my pistols and ran out of cover and started firing, putting Bai on the defensive, I then put them away, launched a bolt of lightning at him, distracting him while I simultaneously willed my lightning to surround me and let me travel as fast as lightning.

As Bai dodged the bolt, I sped up to a point above him, too fast for him to see me, drew my swords, and then launched myself down, charging my blades with lightning, and struck him hard and fast speeding around him until his aura was in the red, ending the match.

I landed and sheathed my swords. When I turned looked at my friend who was still lying on the ground looking shocked, pun intended.

Walking over, I extended my hand to him and said, "Good fight, you almost had me for a while there."

The boy in the white hoodie smiled and said, "Yeah? Well it's not like I can keep track of you when you activate your semblance like that."

Bai was wearing his battle gear, which consisted of a white hoodie with black highlights with dark jeans and black boots. His armor consisted of a half plate under the half zipped hoodie, white steel gauntlets and shin armor along with white steel shoulder armor. He had his quiver of trick arrows on his back that obscured his emblem on his back, which consisted of a black arrowhead that appeared to be smoking. His weapon was sitting next to him in bow form, which he soon split into swords, named _Apollo_ and _Artemis_. Sheathing both, he readjusted his glasses and made sure he had everything before leading the way out of the training arena.

We went to the cafeteria for lunch and found Ash in the middle of his meal. Ash sat wearing his combat clothing like Bai and me. His clothing was grey and white. He had based much of his appearance off of Connor Kenway from Assassin's Creed 3, except for the moccasins. His jacket did however have the beaked hood and coat tails. Most of the jacket was grey with parts of the coat tails and center of the jacket being white. He wore black combat pants and boots along with a dark grey shirt and shoulder armor over his right shoulder. He also had a black vest resembling Kevlar over his shirt. His emblem was on the left side of his vest and on the back of his jacket. His emblem consisted of two white blades crossed over a red eagle. His wrist blades, named _Charon's Dissolution _were on but hidden well with the jacket, and clipped to his belt, looking harmless, was his laser sword in case of emergencies, simply dubbed _Enemy's Bane._

He looked up as we approached with our food and said, "Hey guys, training session go well?" The underlying question was, _"Who won?"_

"He almost beat me this time, he's starting to get better at adapting to faster fighting styles and I can see him beating me in a couple of weeks," I said.

"I don't know about that, wasn't Ash helping you with a new technique to use your semblance with?" Bai said, looking more skeptical than normal.

"That may be true, but the technique is far from ready. The few times I attempted to fully use it, I passed out and didn't wake up for three hours," I replied.

"You're still able to use the basic forms of it though, it isn't like you can't do it at all, you just can't manage the most powerful part yet," Ash said, trying to encourage my efforts.

I sighed knowing that we still had some work to do before the technique was perfected. Then I'd have to make sure my outfit didn't get in the way of using it too much. Maybe if I took my cloak off when using the most powerful form of it?

Like my friends, I had my own signature battle gear, although I have spare sets that differ slightly from the usual one. I have a white shirt with the armor sewn into it along with black combat pants and combat boots, both having gold accents on the seams and metal pieces. I wore a black jacket with armor sewn in along the back and front along with two stripes going down each side, one stripe was gold and the other was silver. My holsters were attached to my thighs containing my revolvers, the black and silver on the left, dubbed _Silver Shadow,_ and the white and gold, dubbed, _Star of Regulus,_ on the right. My swords, _Dark Light_ and _White Darkness_, sat in their respective sheaths beneath my cloak, each on the alternate side of their gun counterparts. My cloak was custom made to be extremely durable and light, going down to just behind my knees. It was colored black with silver trim going around the edges.

We kept eating and talking about our successful 2 months of training and how even Ozpin had stated that he was impressed with our quick catch-up to be on par with the other students. Drifting on a darker topic, we quickly discussed our investigations into criminal activity around Vale, having found nothing substantial for sometime outside of a train car full of Dust being stolen and a gang hideout being blown up.

I had just downed the contents of a vial of Dust while the others weren't looking and thought, _"That should help it stabilize and also become more powerful…"_

Just then, a boy in red burst into the cafeteria and ran to our table, slipping and sliding past before getting back up and coming back over.

The boy revealed himself to be Rowan, a person who could take aim and fire with pinpoint accuracy in a second. He was wearing his usual red button-up hoodie with his black shirt, dark jeans and boots. He had his black shooter's gloves on with his bracers to protect his arms. He had a dark metal plate strapped onto his back to protect from injury from behind. His shin protectors, painted to look black from one angle and red from another, stood out distinctly from his jeans, forming to his legs perfectly. His sniper rifle was strapped to his back with the barrel and stock retracted for easier carrying.

He must have been extremely excited if he was losing his footing that easily. He had one of the biggest grins on his face that I had seen in a while. Something had to be up.

I raised an eyebrow and asked, "What has you so excited?" much to the similar looks coming from around the table.

He looked us all straight in the eyes and said, "I ran into Ozpin just now, and he said that a couple of airships would be here soon carrying the rest of the new students."

He let that sink in and watched our reactions. Bai's eyes simply lit up a little bit and gave a small smile, Ash was looking very excited and looked like he was ready to hop out of his seat. I was feeling very similar to him except just a bit more sedated.

"Well? Shall we go see what we've been waiting for?" Bai asked.

We all smiled and went outside to see the fireworks that would soon be happening.

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><p><strong>Normal POV<strong>

The four walked out just in time to watch an airship land at one of the docks and see students walking off of the craft.

"Anyone see them?" Ash asked.

"They should be coming to that center area any moment now," Silver said.

True to his word, a pair of girls, one had blond hair and the other had black with streaks of red, had entered the area Silver had indicated. They watched, as the girls seemed to have a small argument and the blond one left with a group of people, leaving the poor black and red haired girl spinning before collapsing on a pile of cases.

"Uh oh…" Rowan said, appearing to brace himself for something.

"What are you doing?" The yell could be heard all the way over to where the boys were standing.

A white-haired girl had just appeared and started yelling at the girl on the ground.

Bai sighed and said, "Come on, let's go make sure 'The Heiress' calms down a little."

The others agreed and made their way over to the two girls, who continued to argue with each other. However, they didn't quite make it in time to stop the girl who was on the ground, recently back on her feet, from inhaling some Dust and sneezing out an explosion.

"Unbelievable! This is exactly the kind of thing I was talking about!" The white-haired girl said, absolutely yelling at the poor girl in red.

"Excuse me ladies, do we have a problem over here?" Ash asked, coming up from behind them. They both looked at him, one with curiosity, the other with an icy glare, you guess who did what.

"This dunce nearly blew us both off a cliff after inhaling my Dust!" said the very irritated girl, before her look changed to curiosity and interest when she looked Ash up and down.

"Perhaps that could have been avoided if you hadn't been shaking it everywhere, am I right my dear Ice Queen?" said Silver as we walked up behind Ash, smothering his laughter.

Before she could say anything, a girl with black hair and a bow on her head walked up and said, "It's 'Heiress' actually."

"Weiss Schnee, heiress to the Schnee Dust Company, one of the largest producers of energy propellant in the world." she said.

"Finally! Some recognition!" Weiss said before she was cut off by the other girl as she continued, "The same company infamous for its controversial labor forces, and questionable business partners."

Weiss seemed to be lost for words as she switched from one sentence of outrage to another while the girl in red laughed behind her. She grabbed a dropped bottle of dust from the black-haired girl's hand and was walking off when she slammed into something solid and looked around, confused. Just then, Rowan materialized out of thin air, showing that he had been watching, invisible. The girl didn't bother speaking as she flashed him a look that said, 'I will not hesitate to stab you if you get on my bad side", and continued walking.

"I promise I'll make this up to you!" the girl in red shouted after her, while Rowan sat on the ground, still laughing a little.

"Well that could have gone better," Bai said, hopping down from the pillar he had been perched on, watching the scene.

"Guess I'm not the only one having a rough first day." The girl in red said, before turning to the black-haired girl and saying, "So… What's…" realizing that the girl was walking away. The poor girl collapsed to the ground and simply said, "Welcome to Beacon."

The four friends watched as a blond haired boy in armor walked over and put out his hand, saying, "Hey… I'm Jaune."

"Ruby." She said.

"And that was one heck of beginning to our day," Bai said.

The two turned facing the four people who had been watching.

"Oh yeah! I remember you two!" she said, pointing at Silver and Ash. "Who are you?" she continued, now curious again.

Silver stepped forward and said, "I'm the _lightning fast_ Silver Aurelius."

Then Ash stepped forward and said, "I'm the _untouchable_ Ash Winters."

Bai walked up a bit more to join them, and said, "I'm Bai Ryder, _the blinding light_."

Rowan, having gone invisible for dramatic effect, reappeared next to them and said, "I am the _unseen shot_, Rowan Chase."

The other two smiled as they introduced themselves.

"It's a pleasure to meet you two, Jaune and Ruby," Ash said, flashing a smile.

"So, shall we head to the opening ceremony?" asked Bai.

After a short walk, and a rant from Jaune about motion sickness being much more common than people think, they arrived at the ceremony.

As Silver, Ash, Bai, and Rowan followed Ruby over to where her sister was standing, Jaune accidentally bumped into a girl with bright red hair and as they started their conversation, Silver smiled a bit. They made it over to Ruby and her sister just as Weiss came up behind Ruby and yelled at her again for nearly blowing them off the side of the cliff.

Ash then came up from behind Weiss tapping on her shoulder before handing her a white rose and saying, "Come on Snow Angel, I'm sure you're tougher than you look. I doubt that a small explosion is going to do anything to take you out." He winked at her and went back to stand next to the group and the newly introduced Yang.

She looked at him with interest and went to go stand next to him just as Headmaster Ozpin's speech started.

Ozpin walked up to the microphone, clearing his throat, and started, "I'll, keep this brief." Silver raised an eyebrow at the lack of emotion behind that sentence.

After a short pause, Ozpin continued saying, "You have traveled here today in search of knowledge, to hone your craft and acquire new skills, and when you are finished, you plan to dedicate your life to the protection of the people. But I look amongst you, and all I see is wasted energy, in need of purpose, direction. You assume that knowledge will free you of this, but your time at this school will prove that knowledge can carry you only so far. It is up to you, to take the first step." Finishing, he turned and walked off, with Professor Goodwitch walking up.

"You will gather in the ballroom tonight," she said, "Tomorrow, your initiation begins. Be ready."

While Silver stared calmly after Ozpin, Yang said, "He seemed kind of… off."

To which Ruby responded, "Yeah, almost as if he wasn't even there."

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><p><strong>Several Hours Later, Silver's POV<strong>

I had moved to the second floor as more students started entering the ballroom. I now sat on the frame of an open window, observing the night sky. The cool air breeze felt nice against my face as I picked out the constellations I had never seen before. I was starting to enjoy the peace, quiet and beauty that lay before me, when I felt a presence come from behind me. It definitely wasn't Ash, Bai, or Rowan, they had already gone to sleep, so I turned, wondering who it could be. To my slight surprise, it was Yang, having just come up the stairs, obviously looking for me, as I was the only one up here.

"Oh, hey Yang, what are you doing up here?" I asked, not expecting an encounter with her tonight.

"I watched you come up here earlier, and came to make sure you were alright," she said, curiosity and concern in her eyes.

I'll admit, I was taken aback a little at the kindness she was showing me, despite having met me only a few hours ago. When I finally got over my shock, I said, "Apart from the fact that I'm not big on crowds, I've been having a bit of trouble getting to sleep lately, ever since I arrived a little while ago, I've had this strange sensation going through my head like this is familiar, but the memories aren't my own. Does that sound strange or is it just me?"

She gave me a long, concerned look, and finally said, "Well I don't know about the strange sensation, but I'm sure Ruby and I can help you get some sleep, there aren't many people around us."

"Thanks," I said with genuine appreciation.

I got up, closed the window, and followed her down the stairs over to where she and her sister were set up. Ruby was lying down, writing in what appeared to be a journal when Yang plopped down next to her and announced my presence.

"Hi Silver! You coming to sleep over here?" Ruby asked.

"Yeah, the smaller crowd appeals to me in ways you probably wouldn't imagine." I said.

As I set up my sleeping mat, I heard Yang ask her sister what she was writing and about how she thought it was cute that her sister was communicating with her friends who weren't able to come to Beacon yet. Then, I heard a match strike, and saw that someone had lit a candle and was reading a book. It was the black-haired girl from earlier, Blake, although Ruby and Yang didn't know that.

Ruby looked up and said, "That girl…"

"You know her?" Yang asked.

"Not really," Ruby responded, "She saw what happened this morning, but left before I could say anything."

Then, Yang was dragging a protesting Ruby over to the black-haired girl with a loud, "Hello!"

She looked up from her book, looking slightly annoyed, and I decided to join the group that had started to form.

Looking at the girl, Yang said, "I believe that you two may, know each other?"

To which she responded, looking at Ruby, saying, "Aren't you… That girl who exploded?"

"Uh, yeah," she responded, holding out her hand before taking it back at the look on the other girl's face, "The name's Ruby, but you can just call me Crater… actually you can just call me Ruby."

Seeing the awkward look on the younger girl's face, I stepped in to fill the gap and introduced myself, saying, "My name is Silver Aurelius, could I ask, what is your name?"

"Blake," she said simply.

"Well Blake, I'm Yang! Ruby's older sister!" Yang said, introducing herself.

"Nice night don't you think?" she said awkwardly.

"Yes, it's lovely, almost as lovely as this book," she said, continuing with, "That I will continue to read. As soon as you leave."

"Yeah, this girl is a lost cause," Yang said.

"What's it about?" Ruby asked.

"Huh?" Blake asked, confused.

"Your book, what's it about?" Ruby clarified.

"It's about a man with two souls, each fighting for control of his body." Blake said, suddenly showing interest in Ruby.

"Yeah, sometimes feels that way doesn't it," I said under my breath.

None of them took notice, which was probably a good thing for me. Ruby told about how Yang used to read stories about heroes and monsters to her every night before bed, and how that was one of the reasons she wanted to become a huntress.

Deciding to leave them to their conversation, I bade them goodnight and went over to my mat, chuckling as Weiss came over and started arguing with Yang and Ruby.

I fell asleep knowing that the next day was going to be a very long day.

* * *

><p>I opened my eyes and very quickly realized I was not awake just yet. I stood in the middle of a snowy clearing with a cliff going along one edge, and something that looked like an altar close to the edge of the cliff. Next to the altar, facing me was what appeared to be a woman in a white cloak. Her hood was pulled up, but I could see the lower part of her face, and she just simply smiled at me. This was something like the fifth time I had had this dream, and I was trying to understand why I was dreaming about Summer Rose of all people. All the dream ever consisted of was just her smiling at me until I woke up. All I could really do was stand there and think about what this dream could mean and what made it so important that it had to keep reappearing…<p>

* * *

><p><strong>Outside the Dream, Yang's POV<strong>

I awoke with a start to a small electric shock in what must have been the middle of the night. I would have normally just passed it off as me rubbing against my blanket wrong if I hadn't seen Silver. He was literally sending small electric shocks in random directions, most dissipating a short distance from his body, others making contact with other objects. That wasn't even the most concerning part either. His face looked mostly peaceful, but based on the fact that his semblance was obviously starting to go out of control, I'd say he was very stressed. I saw Ash a short distance away, and quickly ran over and woken up. He didn't look to pleased about being woken up, but when I told him what was going on with Silver, he was instantly awake as could be.

"How long has stuff like this been happening with him?" I asked as we tried to calm Silver down.

"It started about two months ago when we first arrived at Beacon." He answered.

I decided to skip the part where they had already been at Beacon for two months, and said, "What do you usually do to calm him down?"

"Usually I try to get him to wake up and calm him down, but I can never do it until it reaches a certain point." Ash said.

I narrowed my eyes and asked, "What do you mean, a certain point?"

He opened his mouth to answer when Silver made a sound like he was clearing his throat, and did something I would not have ever expected. He started to half sing, half whisper, the lyrics to a song I knew all too well.

"Red… like roses fills my dreams… and brings me to the… place you rest."

Ash looked at me with wide eyes as he saw my reaction to the lyrics coming out of Silver's mouth as he continued.

"White… is cold and always… yearning, burdened by… the royal test."

"Black… the beast… descends from… shadows."

"Yellow… beauty burns… gold."

I stared as Silver's semblance came back under control and his breathing became less erratic. She didn't know why this was happening, but sooner or later, she was going to be asking Silver where he had learned the song that Summer Rose had sung to her and Ruby when they were little.

* * *

><p><strong>Normal POV<strong>

As Yang and Ash went back to sleep, they didn't notice the gold and ice-blue eyes that had been watching the entire ordeal.

* * *

><p><strong>So, this has certainly been quite the chapter. Sorry if the beginning seemed drawn out, but for what I have planned there is no room left for character development to keep it going smooth. Yes, Silver is the de facto main character but I will have certain pieces that revolve more around the other 3 OC's as well. Until next week, keep it smooth, keep it going, and don't forget to follow or leave a review! (It helps)<strong>


	4. Initiation

**I was originally going to post this a couple days from now but I decided, heck with it. The readers want it, I'll give it to them. Enjoy!**

"Some are born great, some achieve greatness, and some have greatness thrust upon them." - Shakespeare

**Chapter 4: Initiation**

**Silver's POV**

I woke to the sound of snoring nearby and saw Yang sleeping a few feet away. I blinked away the sleep in my eyes and looked at my watch, which was lying nearby. It read as 6:45 a.m. Realizing I wasn't going to be getting anymore sleep with Yang's chainsaw of a snore, I got up and left to go get ready for the day. I went through my morning routine before finally throwing on my newly cleaned battle wear and cloak and heading outside to wait for breakfast as it wasn't served for another hour. Settling in the branch of a tree, I lied down to wait. After about fifteen minutes of silence and thought, I heard someone walk up to the tree I was sitting in. I peeked open one eye to see who it was and opened both fully upon realizing who it was. It was Ozpin, and it seemed he was interested in talking with me.

"Anything I can help you with Professor?" I asked, wondering what his tracking me down could mean.

"Seeing as you're the only one awake at Beacon, besides me, right now, I had hoped we could take a walk and have a little chat." He said, smiling a tiny bit.

I raised an eyebrow, wondering what he could possibly want to talk to me about. I jumped down from my position in the tree and motioned for him to lead the way.

As we walked, he said, "I see that you and your friends training has been coming along nicely ever since you first arrived here. In a mere two months, you have become skilled enough to even be among some of the best I've seen at this school, no small feat, as most train for years to become as good as you are."

Taking this praise with grace, I responded, "Yes, well I doubt many other students have had pretty close to the undivided attention of most of the staff of Beacon for an entire two months."

He chuckled and said, "Very true. You are among the lucky few who have had an opportunity such as that arise." Growing a bit more serious, however, he said, "I'm sorry Silver, while the progress you have made is extraordinary, the real reason I wanted to talk to you was about the events of last night."

I simply stared at him, shocked. I was very much hoping he would never find out about what happened when I dreamed of the snowy clearing.

I narrowed my eyes and asked, "How much do you know?"

Ozpin sighed before replying, "Did you honestly think I wouldn't notice the haunted looks you would sometimes get over these past two months? It's just like you said, you and your friends had the staff's undivided attention for two months, how could we not notice?"

I stayed silent, hoping he didn't already know what was actually troubling me.

"So, what exactly has been going on that makes you start sparking and talking in your sleep for five to ten minutes at a time?"

I looked around, making sure no one was around, and only once I was sure that no one was watching, did I say, "Before I tell you anything, you need to swear that you won't tell anyone, and I mean anyone, what I am about to say, especially Yang and Ruby, no matter how important it may seem that they know, got it?"

He looked shocked at my urgency, then narrowed his eyes at my implications and nodded.

I sighed before saying, "It's a dream that keeps coming back every couple weeks, I've been having it ever since I arrived on Remnant. At first, I didn't think anything of it, but then it kept coming back, and Ash was telling me about what happened on the nights that I had the dream."

"And what does this have to do with Yang and Ruby?" he asked, deadly serious.

"Everything."

"How so?"

I whispered the answer very quietly, causing him to ask me to repeat myself. I took a deep breath, looked him straight in the eye, and finally said, "It's about Summer Rose."

He stopped right in his tracks as I said that, and all color seemed to drain from his face. After a long while, he asked me, "How do you know about her?" He was very, very quiet as he said that, seemingly making sure that no one heard us despite there being nobody around.

I decided to answer him painfully truthfully, and replied, "I'm sorry Ozpin, but I can't tell you that, and I hope to never have to tell you that. All I can tell you is that for some reason, I know why I know about her objectively, but ever since I came to this world, it feels like I knew her… personally."

His eyes widened at what that last part could imply, but nodded and said, "We will talk more about this later, but right now I suggest that you go get some breakfast and prepare yourself for your initiation."

I nodded before walking off to the cafeteria, a weight having been taken off my chest from finally telling Ozpin about my dreams.

Sitting with Ash, Bai, and Rowan in the cafeteria, I told them about my chat with Ozpin. Bai and Rowan thought it was good that I had finally told Ozpin, but Ash looked a little nervous, because he was the only person that I had shared my theories about the dream with. Yang and Ruby had come to eat breakfast with us, although the blond didn't seem to have much to say, which I found odd, but shrugged it off, it was none of my business anyway. Yang and Ruby finished breakfast rather quickly and went off to prepare their weapons. After a few minutes, we went to the weapon locker room to get ourselves ready as well.

We entered just as the two I recognized as Ren and Nora were leaving, Nora running to catch up to him. We saw Yang and Ruby just as they were finishing up getting ready and hurried ourselves to our lockers to grab our weapons. Downing the Dust vial in my hand and strapping all armor and weapon holsters where they needed to go, I headed back over to where Ruby and Yang were talking just in time to hear Ruby say, "I don't need people to help me grow up, I drink milk."

"What about when we form teams?" Yang asked.

"I don't know… maybe I'll just be on your team," she said, a little uncertainly.

"Maybe you should try being on someone else's team…" Yang said, playing with her hair.

"My dear sister Yang, are you implying that you do not wish to be on the same team as me?" Ruby asked, looking at her in a bit of an outrage.

"She's right you know," I said, coming closer to them.

They looked at me, Yang sighing from the save, and Ruby just looking at the ground acknowledging the truth in my words. Luckily, Rowan came over and was able to cheer Ruby up considerably by turning invisible and tickling her a bit. I overheard Weiss talking to Pyrrha about whose team she would like to be on, with Jaune coming up and being his normal, Weiss-chasing self, and telling her that there was still some room on his team.

When Weiss started talking about how he was not worthy of being on a team with her or Pyrrha, Ash suddenly appeared and said, "Oh come on Snow Angel, don't be so cold. I think Jaune shows potential, he just as a couple of personal issues to work out before he can fully reach it."

"I agree," Pyrrha said, making Jaune go wide-eyed as he looked between the two who were supporting him.

I noticed that Weiss was still looking at Ash with interest. _"Ah, the tease material,"_ I thought.

Professor Goodwitch's voice came over the speaker with her announcing, "Would all first year students please report to Beacon Cliff for initiation. Again, all first year students report to Beacon Cliff immediately. As the everyone filed out of the locker room, I noticed Weiss staring after Ash in a way I would have never thought she would have looked at him, I could swear that what I saw was a spark of what could be admiration, leaning towards love. Oh boy was I going to have a fun day with Ash.

**Normal POV**

When all of the students had finally arrived on the cliff and taken their places on one of the platforms, Ozpin started by saying, "For years, you have trained to become warriors. Today, your abilities will be tested in the Emerald Forest."

Professor Goodwitch continued with his train of thought by saying, "Now, I'm sure all of you have heard rumors about the assignment of teams. Well, allow us to put an end to your confusion, each of you will be given teammates, today."

Silver heard a complaint from Ruby.

"These teammates will be with you for the rest of your time here at Beacon. So it is in your best interest to be paired with someone with whom you can work well." Ozpin said, earning another complaint from Ruby. "That being said, the first person you make eye contact with after landing will be your partner for the next four years."

Silver heard an outraged, "What?" from Ruby.

Ozpin continued, "After you have partnered up, make your way to the northern part of the forest, you will meet opposition along the way, don not hesitate to destroy everything in your path, or you will die."

Silver picked up a nervous laugh and a gulp from Jaune.

"You will be monitored and graded for the duration of your initiation, but our instructors will not intervene. You will find an abandoned temple at the end of the path containing several relics. Each pair must choose one and return to the top of the cliff. You will guard that item, as well as your standing, and grade you appropriately. Are there any questions?"

"Yeah, um, sir?" Jaune started before being interrupted by Ozpin.

"Good! Now take your positions."

Silver adjusted his cloak and put on his sunglasses, activating the HUD that he had installed there. Ash through up his hood and prepared his blades. Bai activated his bow and readjusted his glasses. Rowan cocked his sniper and made sure his sword was secure before putting on his specialized monocle that helped him calculate his aim for wind speed and bullet drop. Silver heard Jaune continuing to ask his question and saluted Ozpin before being launched into the air.

* * *

><p><strong>With Ash<strong>

Ash flew through the air for a few seconds, waiting for his arc to reach its peak. As he started to head towards the ground, he used the guns attached to his wrists to slow his decent before using a hook blade to catch a branch to start swinging from branch to branch before lightly landing on the ground. He started running north and he heard fighting up ahead, so he sped up to see if he could help. By the time he got there though, the fight had ended and he ran into a clearing where Blake and Yang had just met and become partners. They turned as he entered the clearing, and Yang, realizing who it was, had him pinned against a tree, eyes glowing red, before he could even attempt to move.

"You told me how long, but I now want to know why Silver reacts like that in his sleep sometimes," she said in a clearly pissed off voice.

"I can't tell you that Yang. I'm sorry, I wish I could," he said, an edge of fear in his voice, he did not want to get punched by Yang, at all.

"Why can't you tell me?" she half whispered.

"It's a trust thing, besides I don't entirely know what its about either. If you really want to know, you're just going to have to ask him," he said.

"Regardless of Aurelius' problems, I think we should get moving. We will solve that mystery another day," Blake said suddenly, causing the two to look at her, shocked.

"Yes, I saw what happened, and if I am correct, Weiss did too."

Ash stared at Blake for a moment and said, "Ruby didn't see anything right?" He was very nervous about that particular piece of information, as Silver had mentioned that Ruby could not be allowed to find out the contents of his dream.

Blake shook her head and Ash sighed in relief.

"Why are you so worried about Ruby finding out?" Yang asked.

"Let's just say that if the contents of his dream were to be revealed before he and Ozpin can figure out its meaning it could be a big problem. He didn't give me any solid details about the dream, but he seemed particularly worried about Ruby finding out," he said.

Suddenly, a thought dawned on Yang, "Last question: Where did he learn that song? That was part of a lullaby that me and Ruby's mother used to sing to us when we were little."

Ash visibly tensed up, he had known this question would come, but he hadn't had time to come up with a believable answer so he just said, "Sorry, I can't tell you that either, I know the answer, but again, it's a trust thing, you're just going to have to ask him yourself."

They relaxed and Yang just looked resigned and said, "Come on, let's just get going towards that temple."

The three headed north while a pillar of smoke rose up behind them.

* * *

><p><strong>With Silver<strong>

Silver had landed easily thanks to his lightning teleportation technique, but had unfortunately landed in the middle of a pack of Beowolves. He didn't even have a second to draw his weapons before they attacked, so he had had to resort to using his semblance. He had, in the blink of an eye, coated his fist in lightning and punched a Beowolf in the face, instantly killing it. He drew his revolvers and started firing into the pack surrounding him. As they finally came close enough to strike him, he holstered the guns and drew his swords, charging them with his semblance. As the first beowolf swung at him, he jumped over it and started tearing through the pack until there were none left standing. Silver sheathed his swords and noticed a pillar of smoke along with sounds of fighting coming from nearby and rushed over to help whoever was over there, though he already knew. He stopped at the edge of the clearing and watched as Ruby and Weiss fought the rest of the pack of Beowolves. He drew _Silver Shadow _and started picking off unsuspecting Beowolves. As the last few went down, the two huntresses-in-training noticed the gunshots that weren't there own and noticed Silver as he was reloading.

"When did you get here?" Weiss asked.

Silver was going to reply when Ruby appeared in a flurry of rose petals right in front of him and said, "Ohmygosharethoseyourweaponswhatdotheydowhatkindofroundsdoyouusewhatdoyourswordsdo?"

Silver blinked. He had known that Ruby was a weapon geek, but hadn't expected to get questioned about his weapons in such a fast way.

He made eye contact with Weiss and they had a short, and completely silent, conversation that went something like this:

_A little help here?_

She raised an eyebrow as if to say: _Why should I?_

He looked at her in outrage: _Really? Are you serious?_

She simply smiled with amusement: _I am very serious Aurelius._

His face went blank before sending her a glare: _Fine, I'll owe you one, happy?_

She stopped to consider this and smiled: _Hmm… Deal._

Weiss walked over and tapped Ruby on the shoulder, getting her to stop asking questions. Ruby turned to Weiss, curious about why she had actually tried to act like she was her partner.

Weiss just said, "You can ask Mr. Aurelius about his weapons later, right now we need to get to the temple and grab a relic."

Ruby nodded, looking just a little disappointed.

Silver cheered her up a little by saying, "Come on Ruby, smile, maybe I'll show you the inner workings of my revolvers later."

The black and red haired girl perked up at this and almost crashed into a tree in her rush to catch up to the two who were walking away.

* * *

><p><strong>With Bai and Rowan<strong>

Bai and Rowan rushed north through the trees, killing any Grimm in their path. Bai had _Apollo_ and _Artemis_ in their sword forms and Rowan was using a combination of bullets and his sword to keep the Grimm from taking him down. As they ran, they were talking.

"Think Silver and Ash have found each other yet?" Rowan asked.

"We'll just have to wait and see, we agreed to make sure we got the same relic as them remember? My guess is that they're with one of the other pairs, working their way to the temple," Bai replied.

"I think we're almost there!" Rowan shouted.

They burst through the tree line and found Blake, Yang, and Ash examining the temple and the relics placed there. Blake and Yang had already collected their piece and were taking a break before heading back. They looked up as the two boys came through and just looked at them in bewilderment.

"Did you two just run through the trees all the way here?" Blake asked.

They just nodded before looking at Ash and grabbing what appeared to be one of the white king pieces. Ash nodded before picking up the other one and pocketing it. Then they heard an ear-splitting scream from a distance away.

Yang turned toward it and said, "Some girl is in trouble!"

The three boys looked at each other and simultaneously deadpanned and said, "Jaune."

"What? There is no way that was Jaune!" Yang said.

Ash just shrugged and looked up and moved a little to his left as a voice was heard from above saying, "Heads up!"

Ruby came flying out of the sky as Jaune came flying out of nowhere, slamming into Ruby and they both landed in a tree. Silver landed next to Ash and made eye contact with him, solidifying their partnership.

"Got the relic?" he asked.

"Yep, now we just have to survive," Ash said.

"Did your sister just fall from the sky?" Blake asked Yang.

"I…" Yang started before being interrupted by an Ursa entering the clearing.

They heard a "Yee Ha" and an explosion before the Ursa collapsed and Nora could be seen on its back. She quickly got up and examined it, saying, "Ahh… broken."

Ren appeared behind her and looked like he was out of breath as we was saying, "Nora… please… don't ever do that again."

He looked around, noticing she was gone, and saw her examining one of the pieces.

When she picked it up, she started singing out, "I'm queen of the castle! I'm queen of the castle!"

"Nora!" he yelled.

"Coming Ren!"

"Did that girl just ride in on an Ursa?" Blake asked.

"I…" Yang started again, to be interrupted by a loud screech.

Pyrrha burst into the clearing, followed by a Deathstalker.

Ruby finally jumped out of the tree she had landed in and had landed right next to Yang.

"Ruby?" she asked.

"Yang!" Ruby said, about to hug her sister.

"Nora!" Nora shouted, getting between them.

"Did she just run all the way here with a Deathstalker on her tail?" Blake asked, getting a raised eyebrow from Silver, who had taken his sunglasses off for the moment.

Yang groaned and shouted, "I can't take it anymore! Would everyone just chill out for two seconds before something crazy happens again?"

Two seconds went by before Ruby tapped Yang on the shoulder and pointed up.

"Um, Yang?" Ruby said to her.

"How could you leave me?" Weiss shouted from above.

"I said jump," Ruby said.

"She's gonna fall," Blake said.

"She'll be fine," Ruby replied.

"She's falling," Ren said.

Jaune had finally recovered from his spot and grinned when he saw Weiss falling. He jumped to catch her, obviously forgetting about how gravity would affect him too and said the most cheesy line ever used, "Just… dropping in?" causing Weiss to deadpan.

Then he realized his mistake and they both dropped with Weiss landing on Jaune's back.

Pyrrha hit the ground near the group and Yang said, "Great, the gang's all here, now we can die together!"

"Not if I can help it," Ruby said before charging the Deathstalker.

"Ruby, wait!" Yang called out.

Ruby was flying towards the Deathstalker intent on killing it, but it knocked her back with one of its gigantic claws.

She stumbled back up to her feet and said, "Don't worry! Totally fine!"

She turned around to see the Deathstalker right behind her and fired a shot to get out of its reach before folding her weapon and running back towards the group.

"Ruby!" Yang shouted, running towards her.

The Nevermore that Ruby, Weiss, and Silver had hitched a ride on had circled back around and started firing its feathers at the two. One of its razor sharp feathers caught itself on Ruby's cloak and sent her to the ground. More were impaling the ground right up to Yang and she had to hit the ground and stop moving to make sure she wasn't killed. Either way, she was stuck in the middle of the feathers and Ruby was trying to release her cloak from the feather holding her back when the Deathstalker caught up to her.

"Ruby!" Yang called out as the Deathstalker was about to strike, but was blinded by her hair as something white sped past her. Ruby closed her eyes as the stinger was about to hit and heard a whooshing sound, causing her to open her eyes as she heard a voice right next to her.

"You are so childish," the voice said.

"Weiss?" Ruby said.

"And dimwitted, and hyperactive, and don't even get me started on your fighting style. And I suppose, I can be a bit… difficult, but if we're going to do this, we're going to have to do this together. So if you quit trying to show off, I'll be… nicer." Weiss said.

"I'm not trying to show off, I want you to know that I can do this," Ruby replied.

"You're fine," Weiss said, walking away.

Ruby stood up and got a crushing hug from Yang, causing her to let out a small yelp.

"As heart warming as this all is, you guys, we have bigger issues," Rowan said, pointing his thumb back at the Nevermore that was circling back around.

"He's right, we need to grab what we need, and get back to the cliffs," Ruby said.

The Nevermore screeched and the Deathstalker was almost out of Weiss's ice when Jaune and Ruby had picked up their relics and rejoined the group.

"Time we left," Ren said.

"Right. Let's go," she said waving her arm as she led the way to the cliffs.

Yang was admiring her sister's leadership before finally following with Blake, Silver, Ash, Bai, and Rowan bringing up the rear.

They reached some ruins and finally had the cliff within sight when the Nevermore passed overhead, making the group dive for cover. Then the Deathstalker came from behind them and made them make a run for the main part of the ruins. Ren yelled for Nora to distract the Nevermore while they charged forward, ending with her shooting her grenades at it before flying away from its position. Ren and Blake blocked Nora from getting hit by the Deathstalker from behind while Weiss carried her to safety with a glyph. They were halfway across the bridge when the Nevermore rammed it and split the group. Half were on one side, fighting the Deathstalker, while the rest were fighting the Nevermore. Nora sent herself and Jaune flying over to help fight the Deathstalker, accidentally knocking Blake off, who use her ribbon to get up to the Nevermore and land some hits across its back before jumping to land next to Yang. Silver and Ash were doing their best to support the girls, while Bai and Rowan were helping with the Deathstalker.

The six people fighting the Nevermore readied their weapons as it flew straight towards their position on top of the tower. They started firing their various weapons, and in Silver's case revolver's and lightning, doing little to deter the giant bird as it flew into the tower, causing it to collapse. They all used their abilities to prevent themselves from falling into the canyon and were able to make it back up to the ground of the ruins.

"None of this is working," Weiss said to Ruby.

Ruby looked around at the others who were fighting before saying, "I have an idea! Cover me!"

The team fighting the Deathstalker had to hurry to get off of the failing platform they were standing on. Bai shot explosive arrows at the giant scorpion, to draw it forward, while Rowan took shots at the chinks in its armor. Pyrrha and Jaune kept its claws at bay while Ren ran in and climbed onto the stinger and shooting the base of it, causing it to loosen, before getting thrown into a wall.

"Ren!" Nora called.

Pyrrha threw her shield at the stinger as Jaune called it out, causing it to impale the scorpion's armor.

"Nora, nail it!" Jaune ordered.

"Heads up!" she said, making Pyrrha crouch with her shield pointing up.

Nora jumped on the shield and used a grenade to fly into the air before coming down on the stinger, killing the Deathstalker and sending everyone else flying forward onto solid ground.

Across from them, Yang and Silver were shooting the Nevermore with everything they had. It flew towards them, opening its beak to try to get Yang, but Silver unloaded a bolt of lightning into its mouth as yang held it open and started pumping her incendiary rounds down its throat. She jumped out of its mouth just before it flew into the side of the cliff and saw Weiss rushing forward and then ran off to help with Ruby's plan. Weiss froze its tail to the ground while Ash used his wrist guns to keep it from coming free of the ice. Yang and Blake used _Gambol Shroud_ to create a makeshift slingshot. Ruby jumped and caught _Crescent Rose_ on the ribbon with Weiss using a glyph to hold her in place.

"Think you can make the shot?" Ruby asked.

"Hm. Can I?" Weiss responded.

"You can't?"

"Of course I can!"

After one last lightning strike from Silver, Weiss launched Ruby at the Nevermore and in a flurry of rose petals, Ruby had her scythe on the bird's neck and started running up the cliff with the help of Weiss's glyphs and the shots she was firing from her scythe. When she reached the top, she jumped and pulled the trigger one more time, decapitating the creature of Grimm. As she looked at them from the top of the cliff, Silver, Ash, Bai, and Rowan all smiled at the fact that they were able to be involved in this moment.

* * *

><p><strong>Hours Later<strong>

As the new teams were being announced, Silver couldn't help but notice the effect they were having on this world. Many things were the same as the series, but others were being changed because of their presence. Teams JNPR and RWBY had already been called up, so he knew there was only one group left to be called.

Ozpin cleared his throat after Team RWBY had left the stage and said, "And finally, we have Silver Aurelius, Ash Winters, Bai Ryder, and Rowan Chase. You four retrieved the white king pieces. From this day forward, you shall be known as Team SABR. Led by: Silver Aurelius."

Silver stared at Ozpin in shock. He had expected Ash to get the role, but when he looked to his team, they just smiled and shrugged.

"Looks like things are shaping up to be an… interesting year," Ozpin said, wrapping up the ceremony.

* * *

><p><strong>Elsewhere<strong>

In an abandoned warehouse, Roman Torchwick was talking on the phone. After a minute or so, he ended the call and slammed it down, looking irritably at the map of Vale in front of him. A masked soldier brought up a cart with a case of Dust on it. Roman examined the Dust for a minute before saying, "We're going to need more men."

"Well then, shall we get started?" said a teenager from the shadows. He was wearing all blue and black and had two small tomahawks with guns built into the handles hanging at his sides with what appeared to be miniature crossbows on the inside of his wrists. He smiled as Torchwick looked back at the map and simply nodded.

**Who was that strange person talking to Torchwick? What role will he play in the story? That will be touched on later.**

**(Also, from now on, I'm probably going to be cutting these chapters shorter. It just takes too much time to write, edit, and publish at the current length. On the bright side, expect more frequent updates than just once or maybe twice a week!)**


	5. The Badge

**Not much to say about this chapter. Next chapter will have an announcement or two, but for now just enjoy the story!**

"Before you judge me, make sure you're perfect."

**Chapter 5: The Badge**

**Normal POV**

Silver woke up to the sound of his phone playing one of his RWBY soundtrack songs. He was still unsure about using the music, much less the phone itself with Team RWBY so close to them, literally around the corner. He looked at the bed across the room and saw Ash just waking up so he just went to the connecting bathroom and started to get ready for the day.

Team SABR had been given two rooms, as those were the last rooms available in the non-guest dormitories. The rooms were smaller, but had adjoining bathrooms and kitchens in each, making them more like apartments. Silver finished his morning routine and went to the closet to get his uniform on. With the uniform on, he added his black and silver cloak and put the holsters for his revolvers on, he then checked each gun before holstering it.

"Hey Ash! I'm heading down to breakfast! Try not to be late!" Silver yelled as he left the room.

As he was walking down the hallway to the cafeteria, Bai and Rowan had caught up to him and were joining him for breakfast. They had to pass by Teams RWBY and JNPR's rooms to get to the cafeteria, which proved to be a problem as they had a whistle blasted into their ears from RWBY's dorm. They soon heard Ruby shouting, "Good morning, Team RWBY!"

The three shared a small laugh from that and continued on their way.

After a good breakfast, and Ash joining them, Team SABR headed off to Grimm Studies with Professor Port. They all took seats at the very top row of seats so that they would have a perfect view of the room. The class filled slowly, with the last students arriving being Teams RWBY and JNPR.

Finally, Professor Port started, "Monsters, demons, prowlers of the night! Yes the Creatures of Grimm have many names, but I merely refer to them as prey. Ha hah!"

Getting silence from the room, he continued awkwardly, "And you shall too upon graduating from this prestigious academy. Now, as I was saying, Vale as well as the other three kingdoms, are safe havens in an otherwise treacherous world. Our planet is absolutely teeming with creatures that would love nothing more than to tear you to pieces, and that's where we come in. Huntsmen! Huntresses!" he said, winking at Yang on that last part. He continued, "Individuals who have sworn to protect those who can not protect themselves. From what you ask? Why, the very world!" he finished.

This time he actually got someone to respond as everyone just looked at him and then he just sat down, and stayed very quiet.

"That is what you are training to become, but first, a story! A tale of a young, handsome man, me!" he said.

Silver and the rest of his team inwardly groaned as he started his story, knowing that not much was going to be learned this class.

Silver simply observed the classroom and did some minor maintenance on his revolvers, keeping an eye on Team RWBY.

Ash just absent-mindedly slipped his blades in and out while keeping his eye on someone more specific.

Bai was just sitting in his seat, possibly sleeping, with _Twin Archers _sitting on his desk.

Rowan was getting more done than the rest of the class combined. He actually had his entire rifle disassembled in front of him. He was examining and cleaning each piece before putting it back together again, attaching a silencer, knowing what was to come later.

This went on for another 40 minutes before anything interesting happened. Seemingly out of nowhere, Weiss raised her hand and said, "I do, sir!"

"Well then, let's find out. Step forward, and face your opponent," He said.

"Could I have a couple minutes to get my combat gear sir?" Weiss asked.

"Yes, yes, go get what you need so that we can test your mettle."

A few minutes later, Weiss returned in her combat skirt, and drew her rapier, waiting for Professor Port to start the demonstration.

There were words of encouragement from where the rest of her team was sitting with Ruby saying, "Yeah! Represent Team RWBY!"

Weiss looked at Ruby and said, "Ruby, I'm trying to focus!" giving the younger girl a dejected look.

Port chopped the lock off of the cage containing Weiss's opponent and the Grimm inside charged. Weiss slashed across the side of the Grimm while moving out of its path, causing it to slow, and turn. Ruby was still shouting words of encouragement to Weiss, who was very annoyed with her, and let herself get distracted, getting disarmed and thrown across the room.

"Ho ho. Now what will you do without your weapon?" Port said.

The Boarbatusk charged and Weiss dodged, causing it to slam into a wall, disoriented. Weiss used the time to pick up her weapon and get ready for another attack.

"Weiss!" Ruby shouted, "Go for its belly, there's no armor underneath-"

"Stop telling me what to do!" Weiss shouted at Ruby, cutting her off.

The Boarbatusk charged again and Weiss used a glyph to block it and flip it on its back before jumping up and stabbing it in the chest, looking exhausted.

"Bravo!" Professor Port said, "Bravo! It appears we are indeed in the presence of a true huntress-in-training! I'm afraid that's all the time we have for today. Be sure to cover the assigned readings, and, stay vigilant. Class dismissed."

Weiss just gave a disproving look at Ruby and walked out of the classroom without speaking to her teammates. Ash gave Silver a look that told him all he needed to know. Silver nodded and Ash hurried out after Weiss. Silver told the other two to go back to their room and went to look for Ruby, who he knew would be with Ozpin, hopefully to instill some knowledge of his past experiences onto.

**Hope you enjoyed! Feedback and suggestions help me as I write! Follows just increase morale (Yes that is good). Thanks!**


	6. The Burden

**This is the final part for the Badge and the Burden story arc. Enjoy!**

"Leadership is practiced not so much in words as in attitude and in actions." – Harold S. Geneen

**Chapter 6: The Burden**

**Normal POV**

Ash had held off on approaching Weiss until after she had told Ruby how she felt. Some things just had to be let out and heard. He found Weiss sitting on a bench, watching the sunset. He walked silently up to where she was sitting and sat down next to her.

"What do you want?" she said, not looking at him.

Although he already knew the answer, he just said, "I just want to know what's troubling you."

She paused before saying, "I think I should have been the leader of Team RWBY."

He just stared at the sunset and sighed, and finally said, "Weiss, you aren't going to appreciate this, not right now, but I feel I should tell you this anyway…"

Silver walked calmly down the hall, letting Ozpin take his time in talking to Ruby. He planned on talking to her just before he wrapped up his small speech to her. He walked around a corner and came within earshot just as Ozpin said one of his best lines:

"Ruby, " he said, "I've made more mistakes than any man, woman, and child on this planet, but at this moment, I would not consider your appointment to leader to be one of them. Do you?"

Silver let out a small grin, with a small bit of hesitation. He only hoped that he had the right advice to give Ruby.

"What is it?" Weiss said, slightly curious now.

"This is a story of the sorts of things that can happen when jealousy overshadows a mind that thinks of the teams well-being instead of their own," he said.

She looked at him and raised an eyebrow. He laughed, but his eyes told her all she needed to know. He was serious.

She sighed. "Alright, what's the story?"

"This is a story of Silver, Rowan, and I, and our experiences within a certain organization that helps to develop young leaders.

"Ruby, I agree with Ozpin. Your appointment to leader has not been a mistake so far, and I seriously doubt it ever will be," Silver said, "I have seen many others in your position, in fact, I was once in a position much like yours."

Ruby looked at Silver curiously at implications of this comment.

"Weiss, being the older and the more skillful does not guarantee good leadership," Ash said.

She opened her mouth to protest, but Ash stopped her with his hand and a soft, but firm look.

"Silver, Rowan, and I were always among the best in our particular group, and we, like you, always wanted to be among the leadership. However, there will always be a time when you must follow the one being more capable of being a leader. You may think that being a leader is about being the boss and taking much of the credit for the work your team did, but its so much more than that."

"What more could there possibly be?" she asked, "I've read all about how a leader should act and how to get my teammates to do what I want them to!"

Ash sighed and gave her a small, sad smile, saying, "And how will you be able to lead them effectively if you barely make any attempts to get to know them?"

"What do you mean?" Ruby asked.

"I mean exactly what I said. I was once in a position much like yours," Silver said.

"How so?"

"While I wasn't the leader of a team of armed warriors, I was a leader none the less," he started, "When I was 13, I was made a leader of a group of guys that were all older than me. It was hard at first; I had to endure the fact that they were so much more experienced in every activity. But do you know what I did Ruby?"

Ruby shook her head no.

"I used that experience to my advantage," he said.

"But how?" she said.

"I got to know them Ruby. I found out their strengths and weaknesses and compared them to each other's and mine. I was able to make a team that was one of the best not because of an experienced leader, but one that asked for help from his team. I worked hard to get us to where we were, and I have no regrets."

"But I don't understand, what does this have to do with Ruby being team leader instead of me?" Weiss asked.

"Think for a moment Weiss, I know you're smart, why do you think Ruby was made leader?" Ash said.

Getting a blank stare, Ash continued, "Silver, Rowan, and I, while we had a large amount of time in leadership roles, also had to be a follower every so often. We learned after a while that the leaders who were younger than us sometimes had it easier getting to know us. They saw things that we sometimes didn't. Their new perspective gave us something to learn from, and made us better with it. In my experience, some of the best leaders are those who never wanted the position at all. Think about that, and then think about Ruby's reaction to being made a leader and all of her actions to follow."

A look of realization crossed the girl's face as he said those words.

"Savor your team Weiss, and be not the best leader, but the best person you can be," he finished, knowing that he had just paraphrased what Professor Port would have said.

As he got up and walked away, he said, "And if you and your team feel up to it after your apology," he looked her straight in the eye and smiled," Team SABR is accepting challenges."

With that, he pulled up his hood and walked back to his dorm room.

Ozpin finished his and Silver's chat with Ruby by saying," Being a team leader isn't just a title you carry into battle, but a badge you wear constantly. If you are not always performing at your best, then what reason do you give others to follow you? You have been burdened with a daunting responsibility, Ruby. I advise you take some time, to think about how you will uphold it." He then turned, and walked away, leaving Ruby with a depressed look.

"Think about what I said, Ruby, and remember, being a leader isn't something you simply learn how to do, it's a learning experience, every great leader started at the bottom and gained experience, and you are one of the few who has a natural ability for it without any experience," Silver said, and walked to rejoin Ash, who had just finished talking to Weiss.

"So how did your little talk go with Weiss?" Silver asked, catching up to Ash.

"About as well as expected," replied Ash.

"That's good. What'd you tell her?"

"A small piece of information about us in the troop," said Ash.

"Huh, I told Ruby about my first time as a leader in the troop," said Silver.

"Almost as if we planned it, let's hope they don't figure that out, don't want them getting the wrong idea."

"So, have you thought about next week at all?" Silver asked.

Ash grinned. "Of course I have. I'm thinking we ask RWBY and JNPR to help."

"Good. Now we just have to start planning."

Later that night, Weiss walked into her dorm room and saw everyone else asleep, except there was a light on underneath the veil covering of Ruby's bed. She walked over and found Ruby, having fallen asleep while finishing studying. She was shocked. This was not what she had expected Ruby to be doing this late. She tapped the younger girl on the shoulder, waking her up.

As Ruby's vision cleared she realized who had woken her up and quickly tried to explain, "Weiss! I was studying, and then I fell asleep, I'm sorry-"

She was cut off when Weiss put a hand to her mouth and noticed an empty coffee mug on the bed.

"How do you take your coffee?" Weiss asked.

"Uh… I don't…"

"Answer the question."

"Cream and five sugars!" Ruby burst out.

Weiss sighed and said," Don't move".

She then came back to a confused looking Ruby and said, "Here," handing her the cup.

"Uh, thanks Weiss," Ruby said, confused, but still grateful.

Weiss looked away for a moment and said, "Ruby… I think you have what it takes to be a good leader..." She then smiled before continuing, "Just know, that I am going to be the best teammate, you will ever have! Good luck studying!" She went down from Ruby's bunk before coming right back up, pointing at one of Ruby's answers, and saying, "That's wrong by the way."

As she was leaving to get ready for bed, Weiss said, "Hey Ruby?"

"Uh huh?"

"I always wanted bunk beds as a kid," she said, closing the door to the bathroom.

Ruby returned to her studying and smiled, knowing that her team was going to be able to work together now.

**So, now that this is all wrapped up, I will have a very SPECIAL chapter being released Sunday!**

**And remember, Feedback is always welcome!**


	7. A Special Surprise

**This is a special shout out to the guy who made the character Rowan Chase possible. Happy Birthday bro.**

"Don't just count your years, make your years count." –George Meredith

* * *

><p><strong>Chapter 7: A Special Surprise<strong>

**Normal POV**

Silver woke up slowly that particular morning. He was still recovering from his little run-in with an alternate universe team from Beacon Academy and his head still hurt sometimes. He was going to have to have a serious conversation about the intel he received on missions before they took them. That didn't matter now; he had a far more pressing issue to attend to. He quickly got up and dressed in his normal clothes and woke up Ash, who did the same. They left their room to find Bai waiting for them outside.

"He still asleep?" Silver asked.

"Still out. I think that he'll be another hour or so," Bai replied.

"Good. That gives us plenty of time. Speaking of which, we should get going," Ash said, looking at the time.

The three headed to Professor Port's classroom, where they had gotten permission to throw a party for their teammate. Today was his birthday, and they wanted to give him a big surprise, but they couldn't do it alone. That's why Silver contacted Teams RWBY and JNPR to ask them for help. They saw Team SABR as close friends, so they agreed. They had agreed to meet in the party room to discuss the preparations for the party later that day. The three boys walked into the room to find they were the last one's there; the other teams were standing around, talking as they waited for the meeting to start. Upon them entering, the two teams turned to look at them.

Jaune looked a little disheveled from the early morning and his armor was a bit off, but Silver was sure that Pyrrha plus a cup of coffee would fix that.

Nora looked like her normal, hyperactive self; save for the fact she was moving just a little bit slower than normal.

Pyrrha looked wide-awake and attentive as usual. She didn't seem off in any way from the early morning.

Ren didn't really look all that different either except for the small, almost unnoticeable wrinkles in his outfit. It could be hard to tell with him.

Ruby looked just a little tired, her hair messed up in a way that suggested that she had only just rolled out of bed.

Weiss looked more irritated than normal this early in the morning. Her usual ponytail being a little crooked, but was more than likely to be fixed later.

Blake seemed to be the most alert out of her team, but still seemed a little bit drowsy in her appearance, but Silver couldn't quite put his finger on it.

Yang was definitely the worst off out of the entire group. Her hair was a mess and she looked like she could pass out at any moment.

They all gathered around the table that was meant to be used for the party later.

"Alright guys, I believe you all know why we gathered you here so early in the morning?" Ash said, getting nods from around the table.

"We're here to celebrate the birthday of one of our closest friends. Many know him as the 'unseen sniper', we know him as Rowan Chase, and we are here to help him have one of the greatest birthdays that he has ever had," Silver said.

"That said, let's get down to business. We need your help to set this up well, and make sure he doesn't catch us in the act," Bai said.

"We have a list of things that need to be done for tonight. Has everyone ordered their gifts?" Ash asked, receiving nods from around the room.

"Team JNPR, you're in charge of food. We got permission from Ozpin to use the kitchens so getting the food ready shouldn't be a problem." Silver told them.

"You can count on us," Jaune said, him and his team smiling.

"Weiss, you're with me, we're going to go into Vale to pick up everyone's orders," Ash told her.

"Blake, Yang, Bai, and I will be in charge of decorating the room for tonight," Silver said.

"What am I supposed to be doing?" Ruby asked Silver, wanting to be able to help somehow.

Silver chuckled before saying, "You, Ruby, have the most important, and possibly one of the hardest jobs. You are going to be in charge of keeping Rowan busy while we get everything ready."

Her silver eyes widened in shock and she asked, "How am I supposed to do that?"

"Take him anywhere away from where we are going to be. Take him to the workshop and help him make some adjustments to his weapon, have a sparring match with him, maybe go into Vale and see a movie. I hear 'Atlesian Sniper' is pretty good. Go out to lunch, go to the beach, just keep him entertained and away from us." Silver said.

"Yeah, but if you do go into Vale, just make sure to check-in with me and Weiss so that we can avoid you and Rowan," Ash said, "That way, he won't get suspicious of you for dragging him in some random direction for no apparent reason."

The girl nodded and Ash noticed Yang glaring at Silver for some reason, but he shrugged it off, it was probably nothing.

"Ruby, Rowan should be awake in half an hour, so be there in 15 minutes to wake him up. Take these," Bai said, handing her the whistle she had used previously to wake up her teammates and a can of silly string, with a large smile.

She just laughed nervously.

"Now that everyone has their assignments, let's go get breakfast," Ash said.

* * *

><p><strong>With Rowan<strong>

Rowan woke with a start, falling out of his bed from the shock of a whistle going off right next to him. Before he could say or do anything, he had a face full of what could only be silly string. Then he heard that one of a kind voice that could only be Ruby shouting:

"HAPPY BIRTHDAY, ROWAN!"

He just groaned and let his head hit the floor. Leave it to Ruby to sneak into his room after Bai had left and wish him a happy birthday in the most outrageous way possible.

"Thanks Ruby, but how exactly did you get in here?" he asked her.

"Your door was left unlocked, I thought I was going to have to pick it somehow, but I found it unlocked," she told him, shamelessly.

He was going to have a long talk with Bai later on locking the door when he left the room.

"So what exactly are you doing here Ruby? Outside of blowing out my eardrums and giving me a face full of silly string I mean."

"I just came to wish you a happy birthday," she said innocently.

He just raised an eyebrow at that statement.

She broke and said, "Okay, so I wanted to see if you needed any help with making adjustments to your weapon in the workshop and if you wanted to spar with me later."

"You could have just asked Ruby, you didn't have to be so casual," he said with a hint of sarcasm.

"Well, come on let's go!" she said, getting very excited and running out the door, before coming back and saying, "Are you coming or what?"

"Uh, Ruby?"

"Yeah Rowan?"

"Could I maybe get into something other than my pajamas?" he asked.

Ruby went very, very red and just stuttered an apology before leaving and closing the door behind her.

Rowan shook his head before starting to get dressed, this was going to be an interesting day.

* * *

><p><strong>With Ash<strong>

Ash and Weiss got off of the airship in Vale and started heading toward the shopping center where most of the gifts would be picked up. Ash had reviewed the items on the list from each person and was relieved to see that none of them were weird. He was especially relieved when he saw what Yang's gift was, glad it wasn't something that would be at a weird place.

"So where should we go first?" he asked Weiss.

"We might as well go to the Schnee Dust Company office to have them start moving the cases of Dust over to Beacon. It may take a while." She said.

"Let's go then. We have a lot of stuff to pick up and not a whole lot of time."

* * *

><p><strong>With Silver<strong>

All things considered, everything was going great with the setup at Beacon. Silver and Blake had managed to get a red and black banner that said, 'Happy Birthday Rowan!' and hang it over the center of the room, in immediate view of the doorway. Yang and Bai were able to get ahold of some speakers to play music and were in the middle of getting everything wired. Team JNPR had managed to get much of the food ready for that night, but still had a lot to do if they were going to be feeding around twelve people. As long as Ruby did her job well, they would be able to surprise Rowan.

* * *

><p><strong>With Rowan<strong>

Rowan clenched his teeth as he dodged another slash from Ruby. He activated his semblance as he ran, allowing him to take his time with his next shot, or that would have been true if Ruby hadn't also activated he semblance and started running around with her scythe slashing everywhere, trying to find his location. He switched magazines from normal to ice and started firing in front of the red blur that was Ruby. She managed to dodge most of the shots, but was soon starting to take hits as he anticipated her movements around the eruptions of ice. He took notice of his aura level, and deactivated his semblance, reappearing behind her, and firing another shot, only to see her vanish in a cloud of rose petals. He looked around to see where she might have gone before feeling the cool barrel of Ruby's rifle against his back.

He was just reaching for his sword when he heard Ruby cock the rifle and say, "Don't even think about it."

He dropped his rifle and raised his hands in defeat, ending the match.

"You almost had me that time Rowan," Ruby said cheerfully.

"How did you even sneak up on me like that?" Rowan asked, picking his rifle back up.

"When you have Blake on your team, you're bound to pick up a few of the basics of stealth," she replied.

"Well now that we're both exhausted, you want to go grab some lunch and then head into Vale?" he asked.

"Sure! I hear 'Atlesian Sniper' is a good movie, why don't we go see that?" She asked him.

"Sounds good. Now let's go eat. Movie theater food is always expensive."

* * *

><p><strong>With Ash<strong>

Ash's Scroll beeped as they were walking into another store to pick up Jaune and Pyrrha's gift. He stared at the message for a moment before gaining a look of panic.

"Weiss, we have to grab this gift and go. Ruby and Rowan are coming in this direction."

They quickly went to the order pick up line and got the gift before hurriedly leaving the store to go to the next, one far away from where Ruby and Rowan were going to be.

* * *

><p><strong>Two hours later<strong>

Rowan stretched as he and Ruby left the theater, he saw the sun was coming close to setting and suggested that they start heading back to Beacon. She agreed and pulled out her Scroll, going through a list of some sort.

Ruby was actually messaging Ash and Silver to make sure it was okay to go back to Beacon.

Ruby: _We're heading back, are you guys ready?_

Silver: _We just finished with the decorations and JNPR just walked in with the food so the room is ready._

Ash:_ Weiss and I are on our way back. We should be there in about 5 minutes._

Silver: _Okay, I'll have Bai and Yang go to the landing dock to help you carry the stuff._

Ruby:_ Am I good to come back then?_

Silver: _Come on back Ruby, we'll be ready by the time you get here._

Ruby put away her Scroll and walked with Rowan back to the airships.

When they finally took their seats on the airship, Rowan put his arm around Ruby and said, "Thanks for the amazing day Ruby."

She blushed a little bit and just managed to say in a small voice, "You're welcome."

And so they sat that way for the duration of the flight back to Beacon and when they finally arrived, Rowan was just barely able to get Ruby off of him, as she had fallen asleep and was leaning against him. He woke her up and they proceeded into the Beacon courtyard.

Ruby suddenly stiffened up and said, "Oh, I almost forgot! I was going to go talk to Professor Port about a question on the homework he gave us yesterday. Could you come with me real quick to his classroom? I promise it won't take long."

She gave him her puppy dog eyes and it suddenly became impossible to refuse.

"Alright, alright, you win. I'll go there with you." Rowan said.

Ruby cheered and then started dragging him along towards Professor Port's classroom.

* * *

><p><strong>With Silver<strong>

"Places everyone! They're going to be here soon!" Silver said, "Blake, any sign of them?"

"Not ye- Wait! Here they come now!" she exclaimed, closing the door and jumping to her spot.

"Here we go…" Silver whispered for everyone to hear.

* * *

><p><strong>With Rowan<strong>

"_Why is she in such a hurry?"_ Rowan wondered.

Ruby had been dragging him along at an impressive speed and she wasn't even using her semblance yet. He saw Port's classroom up ahead and heard the door close, which only meant that Port was just getting back in there. They were at the door now and Ruby was opening the door, still practically dragging him behind her when he heard a large yell come from inside.

"Happy Birthday, Rowan!"

He looked around the room and saw his team along with Team JNPR and the rest of RWBY.

He smiled at his friends and said, "When did you do all this?"

Silver smirked. "We've been doing this all day. We needed a way to keep you off of us, so we sent the one person who could perform that job effectively, and that was Ruby," he said, sending a wink at Rowan that only he saw.

"Speaking of which," Yang said, "what did you and Ruby do all day?" Her voice was casual, but the underlying question was still there, causing Blake to step in to calm Yang down a bit.

"Yang," she said, "We'll find out about that later. For now, let's enjoy him not being a streak of red on the wall."

Ruby and Rowan both laughed nervously, both glowing a bright red, not really wanting to talk about their day anymore.

Breaking the silence, Pyrrha stepped in to relieve the tension and said, "Let's not just stand here, we spent all day cooking! Let's eat!"

Placing Rowan at the head of the table, with Ruby on his right, and Silver on his left, Team JNPR revealed the contents of the various plates and platters that were scattered across the table. There were many kinds of food on the table, making sure no one had to eat something they didn't like. The food was so good that the rest of the group started joking about JNPR opening their own restaurant.

As everyone settled in and had filled their plates, presents started getting passed over to Rowan.

First was Silver's present. When he opened it up and realized what it was, Rowan had to work hard to hide just how excited he was about the present. Silver had gotten him a new pair of glasses to upgrade from his current sniper's eyewear. Not only were they more stable as glasses, but they also performed the same calculations as his other one, at twice the speed. He thanked Silver for his gift and moved to the next.

Ash had gotten him a black, wide-brimmed fedora that had a red ring going around it with an eagle feather sticking out of the ring.

Bai had ordered a special serrated combat knife for Rowan with a sheath that could be attached to his boot.

Ruby had been told by Ash that Rowan liked music, so she had gone out and bought him custom headphones with his personal symbol on the sides, earning her a hug from him for the special thought she had given.

Weiss had ordered a few cases of Dust for Rowan, making it unlikely that he would run short for a couple months.

Blake had ordered him a book titled, 'Famous Battle Tactics Throughout History', and was given a strong thank you for the gift, as he was very interested in the strategies of Remnant.

Yang had ordered him a new motorcycle helmet that had a red tinted, reflective visor and a matte black color.

Jaune and Pyrrha had gotten a new weapon cleaning kit for him. He thanked them for the extremely practical gift, as he had pretty much exhausted his cleaning supply a few days ago.

Finally, Ren and Nora had bought him a red and black satchel to carry his weapon in, as carrying a rifle over your shoulder constantly isn't all that fun.

After all the gifts had been opened, and thanks had been distributed, Ren went to the back of the room and brought out a cart, which held a very long platter. Everyone, save for Team JNPR, set their gaze on it, wondering what it could possibly be.

They all gasped as he revealed what was on the cart. Team JNPR had somehow managed to make a highly detailed replica cake of Rowan's sniper rifle, _Mantle's Edge_.

"Where did you get the measurements to make that?" Rowan asked.

"You're a fairly heavy sleeper, it wasn't hard to take the rifle and spend a few minutes measuring its dimensions for them," Bai said, smiling.

They sang a quick chorus of 'Happy Birthday' and ate their way through the rifle cake.

After the cake was eaten, everyone pitched in to help collect dishes, take down decorations, and pick up trash that was left lying around.

Once everything was put away, and the dishes had been taken back to the kitchen, all three teams started heading back to their dorm rooms. It wasn't until they were at their dorms that they realized that Ruby and Rowan were both missing.

**I probably had too much fun writing this. Doesn't matter much now as by the time this come out, I will either be somewhat injured, or Rowan will have shot me in the head.**

**Rowan: "You're darn right I'm going to shoot you!"**

**Either way, it was worth it.**

**Happy Birthday Rowan!**


	8. Reconnaissance

**So this chapter came out a little later than expected and went longer than I had hoped. I just couldn't find a good place to cut it off. Whatever, enjoy the chapter!**

* * *

><p>"It is not a question of can or can't… in life there are some things you just do."<p>

**Chapter 8: Reconnaissance**

**Rowan's POV**

I was in the workshop, sitting at one of the many workbenches with my sniper rifle disassembled in front of me. I was currently trying to reduce the recoil on it while maintaining the same amount of power. I replaced a couple of pieces and reassembled the rifle before walking over to the test range. I took aim at the target, which was about 50 meters out, child's play for me, and took a shot. I felt the rifle kick back a little harder than I wanted and saw the flaming piece of paper. I checked the magazine in confusion and saw that I had accidentally used Dust ammunition. Even though Weiss gave me a large supply of Dust, I wanted to conserve it as much as possible. I switched back to a normal ammo clip and aimed at another target at the same distance, and fired. I saw that the paper now had a hole the size of the top of a soda can in the center of it. Somewhat satisfied, I went back to the workbench and continued working on reducing the recoil.

I had been working for another hour or so, getting varied results, from not enough power to too much recoil, when I heard the door open behind me. I ignored it and continued working, thinking it was just another student coming in to work on their weapon. I was about to pick up another tool to adjust the stock of the gun a little bit when I saw a flash of black and red.

I tensed and thought, _"Oh crap,"_ before bracing as I was tackled to the ground from the side.

Me and the other person rolled for a few feet before stopping and I heard a very familiar voice say, "Hey Rowan, Whatcha doing?"

I looked up at the person on top of me and saw none other than Ruby Rose. I sighed a little. She and I had become close friends a couple of weeks ago after our little, ah, "excursion" away from our teams the night of my birthday. To say they weren't happy about us getting back to our dorms until just after midnight would be an understatement. If Ruby hadn't been nearby when Yang confronted me about it… I shuddered at the thought.

I finally said, "Just making some adjustments to my rifle. I'm trying to cut down the recoil as much as possible."

"Cool! Can I see?" she asked, obviously excited about seeing my weapon's new modifications.

"Sure, but could you maybe get off of me? I kind of need to get up to get to it," I said.

She turned a slight red and quickly started to make apologies, but I just held my hand up and said it was fine, smiling at her. I went back to the workbench, reassembled my rifle, and took it over to the test range. I readjusted my glasses before taking aim at a target. This time, when I fired there was only a small amount of recoil and a hole that took up most of the page. I turned and saw Ruby staring in awe.

After she recovered from her shock, she asked, "How did you do that? What kind of Dust ammo did you use?"

"Those were normal rounds," I replied.

She stared at me in disbelief and said, "No way…"

I cracked a smile. "You have the massive recoil to help you use your scythe, I have no recoil and a larger hole. I'd say that's fair since I don't have a bullet propelled blade."

She thought about this and just shrugged, "I suppose."

"So, want to go get some lunch?" I said as I heard two beeps. One came from my Scroll, the other from Ruby's.

We simultaneously looked at our Scrolls, reading the message and seeing who it was from, we looked at each other and knew we were going to the same place.

We rushed out the door to Professor Ozpin's office to find out more about his urgent message.

* * *

><p>Ten minutes later, we had arrived outside Ozpin's office and knocked. We were given permission to enter and saw that we weren't the only ones called to meet him.<p>

Standing right in front of the headmaster's desk was Ruby's sister, Yang, who was giving me a death glare, for a reason I could very easily guess at. Off to the side, leaning against the wall, was Bai, calm and collected as ever.

Seeing us come in, Ozpin cleared his throat, putting his cup of coffee down on the glass surface of his desk, and said, "Now that you are all here, I suggest that we begin. There is much to discuss."

Bai and I looked at each other, bewildered. What could be happening that required two teams? And where were Silver, Ash, Weiss, and Blake?

I spoke up first, saying, "What do you need? And where are the rest of our team mates?" He got similar looks of confusion from the others in the room.

"They are on another mission that may require their more specific skill sets, just as this mission requires skills more aligned with your own," he explained, still getting confused looks from the four teens.

"I still don't understand why you split the teams. I thought we were supposed to perform missions to the best of our ability in our own teams," Yang said.

"Normally, yes, that would be the case, but I needed to make sure that these missions would be handled properly. So I entrusted them to the combined forces of RWBY and SABR," Ozpin replied, "It is not a lack of confidence, Miss Xiao Long, simply insurance, the stakes are too high for at least one of the missions assigned to your teams. That mission is currently in progress and seems to have had very few complications so far, which brings me to your mission."

We all centered our attention on him, making sure not to miss a single detail. He informed us that there had been reports of increased criminal activity in Northern Vale, namely Dust robberies, and that a mysterious "shadow" figure had been reported to be covering the escape of whoever was committing the robberies.

I narrowed my eyes at this, and asked, "Are you saying that this person has a semblance that is the exact opposite of Bai's?"

He looked at me over his glasses with his piercing brown eyes and said, "We do not have a confirmation of his full capabilities just yet, but it would be a safe guess."

I nodded at this and exchanged a quick look with Bai. We were nervous about what the headmaster was implying with his explanation.

"And what would you like us to do sir?" Yang asked in a very even tone, not betraying any nervousness or fear that may or may not have been there.

Ozpin stared into his coffee cup for what seemed like an eternity, then, he finally looked each one of us in the eye and said, "I need you four to track this person down and help bring him in."

The pressure in the room seemed to skyrocket at those words. I suddenly felt very uncomfortable standing inside the office.

"Are you sure that we're qualified for that?" Ruby asked tentatively.

He smiled a tiny bit and said, "Completely, evidence shows that he's only been fighting for a few months."

Alarm bells were now going off in my head and I could tell from his expression that Bai was now on alert as well. What Ozpin was implying seemed to be intended for Bai and me alone. We quickly got ourselves back under control so as not to draw suspicion from Yang and Ruby.

"Any idea where we should start?" Bai asked.

"There are a few abandoned warehouses at the very edge of Northern Vale that would be a good starting point. I suggest that you start heading over to the garage, your vehicles have all been fueled up, and you have work to do," he said.

We thanked Ozpin for the fuel and assured him that we would do our best to complete our mission and then made our way to the student garage at the edge of campus.

* * *

><p>When we arrived at the garage, we immediately went to check our vehicles. The garage was fairly standard for being underground. It had about three different levels going down with a few areas that had tools should we need to do some maintenance on our vehicles. All four of us in Team SABR had motorcycles, due to the nature of the missions that we took from Ozpin from time to time. Silver and Ash had taken their bikes out on their mission, so Bai and I had a little bit more room to check our bikes, <em>White Onyx<em> and _Fire Hawk_, before we hit the road. Bai's bike was white with two black stripes going across each side, while mine was red with a black flame design going along the bottom. When Bai finished his checks, he put on his helmet, which was white with a black tinted visor. He then pulled his bike out of the parking spot and waited for Yang and I to finish. When Yang had finished, she put her aviators and yellow and black helmet on and handed Ruby her helmet just as I finished my checks and was pulling out of my spot. Ruby exchanged a look with her sister before receiving a grudging shrug and walked over and got on the back of my bike. I flipped my visor open and looked at the girl, who just smiled and flipped the black visor of her dark red helmet down. I shook my head and started the engine. Bai led the way out of the garage with Ruby and I in the middle and Yang in the back. I could practically feel Yang's angry stare on my back and was getting worried that she may deck me once we got to our destination. This was going to be a long drive.

* * *

><p>We arrived at the first abandoned warehouse about half an hour later. It was roughly the size of a football field, and looked like it hadn't been used in years. We got our weapons ready and went inside, prepared for anything. After another half hour of searching the place, finding only rusty tools and empty boxes, we concluded that there wasn't anyone here. We then proceeded to the next warehouse and yet again found nothing. This continued for a few hours, until finally, just after sunset, we found signs of activity.<p>

There were somewhat fresh tire marks leading up to the door, which had a new lock on it. We broke the lock and lifted the door to an extraordinary sight. There were rows of stacks of containers of Dust three high. They seemed to go for at least half of the length of the warehouse and could have contained any amount of Dust, and God knows what type. We walked down the central aisle, weapons at the ready, searching for any guards or others that might be there. At the end of the aisle, we found nothing but an empty space that took up the other half of the warehouse. Seeing nothing of interest, we were about to head back to our vehicles when a voice said from the darkness, "So… you finally came."

I looked around for whoever had spoken, but saw nothing in the shadows. Suddenly, a flash of movement caught my eye, and I saw someone jump from the rafters above us.

He landed in a crouched position and stood with his back to us, revealing a white omega symbol with blue flames going along the top on the back of his vest jacket. He had a dark blue shirt with long grey sleeves under his black vest jacket, which had a white line going across the chest with a dark hood attached to it. He wore dark jeans and solid black sneakers. Hanging on either side of his belt were two identical tomahawks, which had black, triangular blades that had openings that looked like hand holds where he could hold them by the top of the blade. The blade was rounded at one side for maximum damage potential when used.

His hood was up, hiding his face, but something seemed familiar about him, which was weird, because I couldn't remember anyone like him being in the show.

"Who are you?" Bai yelled, clearly drawing the same conclusions I was.

The figure's shoulders slumped theatrically, and he said, "Wow man! You really forgot all about me? And after you forgot to invite me to come with you too!"

My eyes widened, my heart stopping cold, and faster than anyone could blink, I had drawn my rifle and taken a shot, knocking the figure's hood off, revealing black, medium-length hair and dark blue eyes.

He didn't seem the slightest bit shocked at the sudden shot, if anything, he smiled a little wider.

"So it is you…" I said, "Mind telling us what you're doing here, Indigo?"

This was Indigo Cole, old friend and also someone who should not be here.

Bai was just as shocked as I was. He was gripping his swords very tightly now.

Ruby and Yang just looked between us in confusion before Ruby asked, "Um… do you guys know each other?"

"Let's just say that he's an old friend that we didn't think we would be seeing ever again," Bai said.

"Oh, " she said and took a step forward, saying, "Hello there! Have you seen any thieves around here by any chance?"

"Ruby," I said, eyeing Indigo as his hand had twitched in the direction of one of his tomahawks.

"Yeah?" she asked.

"You need to back away from him, slowly," I said, keeping my voice as even as possible.

She looked confused. "But I thought you guys said you were friends…"

"We said we were 'old friends' Ruby. But the circumstances have changed with us being here with him," I said.

"But what about the guy we were… tracking…" she said, realization dawning, she quickly backed up.

Now that that was cleared up, I asked Indigo, "So what are you doing here, Indigo?"

He just smiled, and said, "Oh I'm just here to tie up a few loose ends."

The way he said that sent my senses into overdrive and my heart was pounding very hard now.

"Ruby, Yang," I whispered, "Get back to the bikes right now."

They looked at me with confused expressions.

"Just do it! Me and Bai will hold him off, you two need to get out of here and get to Ozpin," I said, a little more urgently this time.

They suddenly got very worried and outraged expressions, saying, "No!" and "We won't leave you two!"

"There isn't time to argue! The longer all of us stand here, the longer he has to take us out, and erase any chance we have of getting this information to Ozpin!"

They kept their worried expressions, but nodded. As Ruby was walking away, I heard her say, "If you don't come back, I won't forgive you."

I turned in her direction and smiled, saying, "Well it's a good thing I plan on coming back isn't it?"

She looked at me and giggled a little bit, and said, "You better come back, you hothead, I still need my sparring partner for when Weiss isn't around." She then turned and ran after Yang, leaving me to return my smile to a frown of regret.

I turned back to Indigo and stepped up next to Bai. "You ready?" I asked him.

He responded by forming his bow and taking aim, while I took aim with my sniper. Indigo drew his tomahawks and took a fighting stance.

"Let's go," he said, and disappeared into the shadows, literally.

I stood there for a moment, shocked, before yelling, "Bai, Lighthouse!"

Bai quickly used his semblance and let loose a blast of blinding white light. I closed my eyes so that I wasn't blinded, and heard a grunt of pain a few yards away. I looked over and saw Indigo on the ground, stunned. I started to walk over to knock him out when he suddenly flipped his tomahawks around, gripping them on the inside of the blade. I figured out what he was doing just in time to dive to the side just before the shots rang out. I quickly took aim and fired a shot, knocking him back, and putting a serious dent in his aura.

He growled and disappeared into the shadows again, only to reappear behind Bai to deliver a roundhouse kick to his head, knocking him out, and disappearing again. I cursed, Bai's aura level had dropped severely from that flash of light, and Indigo had taken advantage of that. I saw a shadow moving towards me along the ground at a quick pace and drew my sword, turning it invisible, and struck downward just as the shadow reached me.

Indigo wasn't expecting that, so he was once again thrown out of the shadows. He groaned in frustration, and then I felt a strange pressure as I looked at him and saw that his eyes now had a purple tinge to them.

"That's a nice trick you got there, Rowan, shame it won't be working a second time," he said as he charged, wreathed in shadows, faster than ever.

I held my sword up to block, but just as he was about to strike, he vanished. I looked up confused, before being sent across the room from a blow to the back.

I turned over, still holding my sword, and saw my rifle still on the ground back where I was standing.

Indigo appeared in front of me in a swirl of shadows, blades at my throat, smirking, and said, "Give up yet?"

I spat some blood onto his shoe in defiance and said, "Not done yet. I've still got some fight left-"

I was cut off as he picked me up by the throat and said, "And what could you possibly do to stop me?"

I smiled and said, "I could do this," and brought my sword up and struck him, hard, in the side.

It was his turn to spit blood. He glared at me with his glowing purple eyes and said, "That was your last mistake."

He charged forward, even faster now, he would have given Silver a run for his money. He threw me across the room and into a wall, before I could even touch the ground, he had thrown me into another wall, and then grabbing my head, he pounded me into the ground, almost knocking me out.

My vision started to blur as he appeared next to me and brought his arm back for the final blow.

"_Sorry guys, guess we really couldn't beat him by ourselves,"_ I thought.

The final thought in my mind before I closed my eyes in preparation of the inevitable blow to come was, _"Sorry Ruby…"_

Just as I finished the thought, I felt a surge of energy like never before. My eyes flew open and I met Indigo's gaze and he actually backed off a little bit. He recovered and quickly brought down the strike, but I lifted my hand and caught it. I then pushed back, making him stumble back a few feet, giving me a chance to regroup. I felt energy surge through my body and then an idea about this new found power occurred to me. I concentrated some of the power into my hand and a ball of fire appeared.

I smiled and said, "That's more like it."

I made a fist and the fire covered it, doing no damage to me. I then tried my legs, and then my entire body, getting the results I wanted, I let the flames die down, for now, and walked over to Indigo.

"Do you give up yet?" I mocked.

"I don't know what happened, but you aren't going to get so lucky this time," he replied, forming shadows around him.

"We'll see," I said, reactivating the flames.

We stared each other down, both knowing this was going to determine who won this fight. He took a step and then he had suddenly covered half the distance between us. I sidestepped and punched him in the gut then threw him back. He drew his tomahawks again while I picked up my sword. We charged and then we were exchanging blows until we were practically balls of fire and shadows flying around colliding and trying to knock the other out.

We both landed and prepared for what had to be the final attack. We both ran forward and met, our elements struggling for dominance while we were clashing our blades. After what seemed like a minute, we both jumped back again and waited. I was affected first, feeling every blow he had managed to land, but was still somehow able to stay standing. He didn't fair as well. Indigo was collapsed on the ground; barely conscious from all the hits he had taken.

All he was able to do was say, "You win this time, Rowan," before he disappeared in a whirl of shadows.

The last thing I saw before passing out was a few sets of headlights coming from the door and a red-hooded figure running towards me, and although I couldn't hear them, seemed to be yelling at me. When my head hit the ground, everything went black.

* * *

><p><strong>So, that was a thing to write. What do you think of the sub-semblances? Don't worry, they'll be explained a little bit later. But I really want to know is, what do you think of the RubyXRowan ship? Or going back a little bit, the WeissXAsh ship? Please leave a review and follow, it really helps helps me out.<strong>

**Rowan: And this is the part where Ash and I kill you.**

**Ash: I'm not really appreciating how much fun you're having with writing these ships.**

**SoA: Goodbye my readers! There are going to be some serious "negotiations" going on behind the scenes here, so the next update may not be here for a little while.**


	9. ANNOUNCEMENT

**I know many of you have been wondering when the next chapter will be coming out. I am sure that you will view this announcement as a waste of time to read as you were hoping for the next piece of the puzzle. **

**Do not worry! The next chapter is in the works and will be out within the next week. Why a week you ask? It's because I've been busy with school and setting up the incoming characters. That didn't take too long to do, but there is something even bigger I would like to announce!**

**Me and one of my friends will be working on a story parallel to this one. I will provide details on this at a later time.**

**Second, I'm currently working on a series that will fall in line with the characters, but will have NO SIGNIFICANCE to the story itself. It will be a place where I post ideas I have in my head and just need to vent the ideas to make room for new ones. I repeat: THERE WILL BE NO REFERENCE OF THIS SERIES IN THE MAIN STORY! DO NOT EXPECT THERE TO BE ANY CONTINUITY WITH THAT STORY! IT WILL ESSENTIALLY BE A BUNCH OF ONE-SHOTS.**

**Thank you,**

**ShadowofAxios**


	10. A Discovery

**I'm sure you've all heard about Mr. Monty Oum being hospitalized, I extend my best wishes to him and hope he makes a full recovery, as this story would not be possible without his genius. Mr. Oum, I salute you.**

Start by doing what's necessary; then do what's possible; and suddenly you're doing the impossible. –Francis of Assisi

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><p><strong>Chapter 9: A Discovery<strong>

**Silver's POV**

We were on the highway leading away from Beacon, Ash and I were on our motor cycles, Blake and Weiss riding as passengers. My bike was black with silver racing stripes going down the sides. It was dubbed _Silver Storm_. Blake was my passenger, wearing the spare generic black helmet I always kept in the storage compartment and my helmet was black with a gold visor and a ring of silver going around the base. Ash's bike was a dark grey with white arched lines went down the sides and was named _Winter's Shadow_. His helmet was grey with a single white stripe going down the center and a black visor, while his passenger, Weiss, wore his spare white helmet, which had a grey stripe going down the center and a white visor.

We were on our way to investigate an energy signal similar to the one that indicated our arrival on Remnant, and Ozpin wanted us to make sure we got whoever, or whatever, it was before someone else did. He had told us we would have to present his certification upon arriving as he had contacted the police and asked them to set up a two-block radius perimeter around the signature. I was really hoping that no one actually came through, but I was also hoping that if anyone did, we actually knew the person.

Ozpin had said something about the rest of our team mates being sent on another mission later that day, and that we shouldn't worry about leaving them behind. I really hoped that they really could handle who ever it was they had been sent after. I had hacked Ozpin's Scroll to see what their mission was, and saw just how dangerous that guy was, so to say I wasn't a little worried would be a lie.

When we reached the perimeter line, we stopped our bikes a few yards away and dismounted. We walked over to a man wearing suspenders over a white shirt with a tie. He was wearing sunglasses and had brown hair and a beard. He looked strangely familiar, but I couldn't quite place him. Deciding to let it go, I showed him our credentials. He examined them thoroughly and looked at us over his glasses.

"You kids really think you can handle this?"

"Yes, yes we do. And judging from the credentials, Ozpin thinks so too," I said.

The officer sighed. He wasn't about to argue with what was quite possibly the greatest huntsman in the kingdom.

"Alright, go on through, best we can tell, the energy source is coming from an alley way."

"Thanks."

We started walking in the general direction of the energy signature while Ash pulled out a device to help zero in on the source.

We had been going in circles trying to find the source for hours trying to find the source when we finally got a clear reading and started to walk toward the identified location. When we saw that we were within 300 yards of the source, we told Blake and Weiss to stay back just in case we needed backup.

"And why would we do that?" Weiss asked.

"Because we asked nicely?" Ash suggested.

"But why do you need to go alone?" Blake asked.

"There are certain things that the energy could be releasing that Ozpin only wants us to see until they can be dealt with in a clean fashion."

Weiss and Blake exchanged a look.

"I know, but I promise that we'll tell you what we can at a later time," I said.

"Alright, but don't take too long!" Weiss said as we started back toward the energy source.

"So what do you think is there?" Ash asked me.

"Seeing as it hasn't moved in the past couple hours, I'd say it's not a person," I replied.

"What could have possibly been sent through?"

"I have no idea."

We kept walking cautiously toward the source of the energy signature until we were almost right on top of it. At that point, we took our eyes off the scanner and started searching everywhere for the source. At first, all we found were ordinary objects, but then we found a box that seemed out of place. When I say out of place, I mean that it was a lot fresher than the other cardboard boxes in the alley, plus it looked freshly taped.

We looked at each other and nodded. Ash proceeded to use a blade to cut the tape and moved so I could look at its contents. To say I was surprised at what was inside would be an understatement. Inside the box were a few items that were almost obviously meant for _me_. There were two 12-packs of Coca-Cola and a letter with my name on the envelope. There was another envelope, addressed to Ozpin, and a white cloak, similar to Ruby's and mine… oh shit.

"Ash, look at this," I said, "This was a care package."

"Sure looks like it. Who do you think it's from?"

"No idea, but the cloak gives me a feeling that I'm not liking."

"Read the letter."

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><p>I read:<p>

_Dear Silver,_

_I send this to you knowing exactly where you are and having an idea of the people you have met and what you're doing. I do worry about you at night. I worry even though what you're doing was inevitable. It's in your blood. I'm sure that by now both you and Ozpin have started draw conclusions on why you were sent to Remnant. I have the answer, partially. It's my fault you were sent there. There had to be a trade, I was sent to this world a year or so before you were born. Your father helped set up an identity for me. I should have told you the moment you got hooked on the show that you now know is real. I send this cloak to you so that you may understand who I truly am. I send the coke to you because I know there isn't much of an equivalent to it on Remnant. I also send to you the blueprints for a cross-dimensional communication device. I hope you and Bai are able to get it working! In Ozpin's letter is an explanation on who you really are and your relation to me. If you want the information, simply ask him and he will tell you, my orders. I'm sorry I had to tell you about your heritage this way, but do not tell Ruby or Yang until you are sure they are ready. If they aren't, I don't want to think about it. If you happen to see Qrow or Tai-Yang, please tell them what really happened to me. They deserve to know._

_With Love,_

_Summer Rose Aurelius_

_P.S._

_Indigo and two others disappeared about a month after you four, so keep an eye out!_

* * *

><p>I couldn't move. This was a lot to take in. I had always theorized on Summer Rose not being dead, but to find out that I was right was something that had me highly on edge. That said, my senses were on overdrive and I was able to sense at least two more present in the shadows.<p>

"Come on out, I know you're there," I said as calmly as possible.

Two people stepped out of the shadows at the other end of the alley. One was a male with long black hair and emerald green eyes. He wore a black trench coat along with black pants and shoes. He had a white shirt with a black suit vest and a purple tie. His belt was purple with a silver buckle. On the lower left of his coat there appeared to be an image of a purple, loosely coiled whip that almost looked like a spiral. I could see a sword hilt sticking out from his open coat.

The other person was a female. She had storm-grey eyes and blond hair tied back in a pony tail save for one strand that went down the left side of her face and what looked like grey eagle feathers in her hair. That one was weird but I let it pass for the moment. She wore a black shirt with a moonlight-silver jacket and dark jeans with combat boots. She had a red scarf covering her lower face and a black sash on her right hip with what looked like a white Greek delta with a spear running up the middle of it.

They looked familiar but I couldn't place them. Then it hit me. Long black hair, Blonde hair in a ponytail with one strand loose, not to mention the red scarf, I knew exactly who they were.

The boy was a little younger than me. His name was Davin Eminence. The girl was younger than me by a month, so she was the same age. Her name was Gwyn Athene.

"How's it going Gwyn? Davin?" I asked casually.

I saw a flicker of shock play across their faces before Gwyn lowered her scarf, revealing the rest of her face.

"How did you know?" she asked.

"Do you even remember who gave you that scarf?" I shot back.

She looked down at the scarf and a look of realization came to her. I smiled.

"Wow, that really was obvious."

"What about me though? How did you figure me out?" Davin asked.

"You're the only guy I know with long black hair and such bright green eyes dude."

He didn't seem all that pleased with that deduction.

Ash decided to speak up at that moment. "So how did you guys get here? And what's with the feathers Gwyn?"

Gwyn scowled; I guessed it was a touchy subject for her.

"We got sent here about a month after you guys did. And just so you know, the torch at school burned for like a week and a half after you guys disappeared," Davin said.

"Wow, thanks. I really wanted to hear about my supposed death today," Ash said.

I nodded in agreement. "What happened with Gwyn?"

"Apparently a small glitch happened during transportation between our world and Remnant, causing her to become some sort of bird Faunus."

"I think they're eagle feathers. Strange, my father always loved eagles. I would have preferred to have the wing feathers of an owl though. They're much smarter," Gwyn said.

We all looked at her, surprised. She just shrugged and said, "If I'm going to be a Faunus, I can at least wish I was a Faunus of my favorite animal."

We all laughed at that. It felt good to laugh with the friends I had known for a long time again.

"So what have you guys been up to?" I asked.

"We've been keeping tabs on White Fang movements to make sure they stay at least somewhat constant with the show," Davin said.

"What about you?" Gwyn asked.

"We've been at Beacon, training and doing different missions such as this one for Ozpin," Ash said.

"Where are Bai and Rowan?" Davin asked.

"They got assigned to a different mission from us. They're working with half of Team RWBY while we work with the other two," I said.

"Anything gone wrong on your end yet?" Gwyn asked.

"Not yet, but I'm sure it'll happen at some point. Speaking of which," I said, drawing a revolver, "it looks like someone's curious over there." I fired close to the corner of the alley, hearing a small yelp of surprise.

"Come on out Weiss. You too Blake." I said.

Blake hopped down from the rooftop while Weiss came from around the corner.

"How did you know?" Weiss asked.

"You're not exactly the master of stealth Ice Queen," I said, earning a laugh from Davin and Gwyn, and a smile from Blake.

"Anyways," Ash said, trying to keep Weiss calm, "allow us to introduce you guys to some friends of ours. Weiss, Blake, meet Davin Eminence and Gwyn Athene."

The two parties approached each other and shook hands, smiling.

"So what do you guys do?" Weiss asked.

"Mostly reconnaissance stuff. The occasional sabotage or skirmish will break out on mission, but we can handle ourselves," Gwyn said.

Davin grinned and drew his sword. At first glance, it looked like it simply had a double serrated edge. Then he hit a button and the pieces came apart, forming a chain of small blades, a chain-sword then. Then he clicked another button and a cold mist could be seen emanating from the sword. After a few seconds, he reformed it and sheathed it and looked expectantly at Gwyn.

Gwyn first unsheathed a dagger from her boot and showed it to us and sheathed it. She then reached back and pulled out a gold poled spear with a silver tip, she then twirled it around before turning it into an assault rifle and putting it away. The last thing she did was hold up her wrist, which had some sort of bracelet on it, and tapped it. It instantly unfolded into a shield that looked like it had the impression of a face sticking out… wait, was that Medusa? When did she have the time to make that?

Everyone looking at the shield unconsciously took a few steps back at the sight of it.

Gwyn laughed a little bit at our reactions and put away the shield, visibly putting everyone back at ease.

"Sorry, forgot about the effect of my shield, it causes those who see it to at least hesitate before attacking, giving me an edge in battle," she said.

Weiss looked appalled and Blake just looked mildly surprised.

"That's a nice trick you've got there," I said.

"I aim to please," she said.

I raised an eyebrow at this comment. She just smirked right back.

Ash finally got over his shock and said, "It was nice seeing you, but we have to get this stuff back to Beacon. Ozpin needs to see this."

"We'll call you if we have any info for you," Davin said.

"Thanks, we'll call you if we ever need back up," I said.

"We'll be there," Gwyn said.

With that, we parted ways, going on our way to do the various things we had to do. We headed back to our motorcycles, where we put everything except Summer's cloak in the storage compartments. (I had stashed the cloak in my bag to keep Weiss and Blake from seeing it, as they would no doubt tell Ruby and Yang.)

We then got ready for the drive back to Beacon by doing various stretches and checking our helmets before finally heading out.

* * *

><p>It was late by the time we arrived back at Beacon and we were on our way back up to Professor Ozpin's office when we saw a Bullhead quickly land with a medical team getting out with two stretchers. Before we could get a closer look at who was being rushed to the infirmary, we saw two more motorcycles, Bai and Rowan's, pull up, but it wasn't them riding.<p>

Both riders quickly dismounted, revealing themselves to be Ruby and Yang. Ruby looked extremely distraught, almost on the verge of tears, and Yang just looked shell-shocked. Realizing what that meant, I dropped the box I was carrying, and Ash and I sprinted over to the stretchers that were being rushed away.

I saw Bai and Rowan, both with bandages all over, though Bai looked in way better shape than Rowan did. Rowan was battered and bruised and looked like he had taken quite the beating. His glasses were cracked and there were some particularly large injuries on his back and chest.

Team RWBY appeared behind me, I turned to look at them and they all backed up a few feet, nervous looks on their faces. I then realized that my eyes were switching between a brilliant gold color and a shining blue. I willed my semblance to come back under my control and then reopened my eyes, getting looks of relief from them.

I put my hand on the frozen form of Ash and said, "Let's leave this to the medics. We need to go see Ozpin"

He nodded and followed me with Team RWBY to Ozpin's office.

As we walked, I looked at Yang and Ruby and said, "What happened?"

Yang responded for them both, Ruby still seeming to be out of it. "We don't really know exactly how they got all those injuries, they told us to get out of there before the battle started."

"Do you know who it was?" Ash asked.

"Based on the Intel, it would have to be someone extremely skilled," I said, "Did you ever get a name?"

"Yeah, yeah he gave us his name shortly before Bai and Rowan started getting really tense. He said he was a friend of yours. Indigo Cole, I think he said?"

I suddenly felt very cold.

"Did you just say 'Indigo Cole'?" I asked.

"Yeah, we thought we would be okay since it was just him, but then Rowan started yelling at us to get back to the bikes and get Ozpin as fast as possible."

"So Ozpin already knows then?" Ash asked.

Yang nodded, and Ruby still wasn't responding to anything. I stopped and gripped Ruby by the shoulder, snapping her out of her trance. She looked at me with her sad eyes and I instantly knew what was troubling her.

"It wasn't your fault Ruby," I said.

She looked at me, shocked. "How can you say that? Of course it was my fault! If I had stayed, Rowan wouldn't have gotten hurt as bad!"

"Ruby, Rowan knew exactly what he was doing when he told you to go. If you and Yang hadn't left, would they still be alive? Would Ozpin have the information he has now? No to both of those things, so you need to stop blaming yourself, and start thinking about helping Rowan through this."

She stared at me for a good 30 seconds before finally saying, "Thanks, Silver, you're right. I need to stay positive for Rowan!"

I nodded. "Of course I'm right, now let's go catch up with the others."

* * *

><p>When we finally arrived at Ozpin's office, we found the others waiting for us.<p>

Ozpin started as soon as we arrived. "Now that you're all here, it's time we went over today's events. I'm sure you're all aware by now of the events that transpired at the 'abandoned' warehouse. I was able to get the footage of the entire battle before the footage was mysteriously wiped. Here it is." He turned his screen for us to see.

I watched as Ruby, Yang, Rowan, and Bai entered the warehouse and were confronted by Indigo. I saw Ruby and Yang leave, albeit reluctantly. I watched in horror at the power that Indigo displayed, and how he was quick to capitalize on Bai's momentary weakness and how he and Rowan were trading blows for such a long time before Rowan was finally thrown into the wall and then pinned to the ground. I thought that had to be the end until I saw Rowan open his eyes and push Indigo back. I watched in awe as Rowan tested out his newly found power by conjuring flames to cover his fist and then his entire body. I then watched proudly as Rowan took the fight back to Indigo and was able to subdue him. The clip ended with Indigo disappearing in a whirl of shadows, and Rowan hitting the ground with Ruby running towards him.

Everyone was staring at Ozpin, hoping for an explanation.

"I do not know how you four from SABR know this boy, but I am glad you aren't with him."

"Of course we're not with him. He's not the same guy we used to know," Ash said, "At least, not if he's doing stuff like that."

Ozpin nodded, while Yang spoke up. "Sir, I thought Rowan's semblance was invisibility. Where did the fire come from?"

Everyone nodded in agreement; we were confused about that as well.

"It appears that Mr. Chase has unlocked an incredibly rare technique known as a sub-semblance," Ozpin said, "This technique has varying difficulties in being unlocked, depending on the person. It usually manifests itself in a particularly life threatening situation where a particular emotion may be running high. Anger, sadness… love," he said, looking at Ruby, who blushed. "It seems that Mr. Chase had fulfilled the requirements to unlock his sub-semblance, and was able to defeat Indigo and survive the battle, at a great cost to his aura however."

We all nodded at his explanation, it made sense, and I had a feeling that once Rowan was fully recovered, Yang was going to have a long 'talk' about his emotions during the battle.

"Team RWBY, you are dismissed, you need to get some rest, Mr. Aurelius, Mr. Winters, we have some things to discuss," Ozpin said.

Team RWBY left, although it looked like Weiss and Blake wanted to stay behind. I shook my head at them, and they nodded, respecting our privacy.

"So, what do you want to know?" Ash asked.

"You could tell me what you found at the source of the energy signature," Ozpin said.

"Sure, here's the first part you should see," I said, handing him the envelope with his name on it. He looked at me in confusion, but I just smiled. He took the letter and read.

As he read, his demeanor grew more of a mix of surprise and seriousness. I knew he was really surprised because of his widened eyes behind his glasses, and his absolute look of surprise and a bit of sadness when he looked directly at me.

When he had finished, he said, "This is real?"

"One hundred percent," I said, "If you still have doubts, here's the letter she wrote to me."

He read the letter, and once he was finished, he pulled a small metal flask out from under his desk and poured a small amount of amber liquid into his coffee.

"Where are the rest of the items you picked up?" he asked, taking a sip of his now spiked coffee.

"Right here," Ash said, hefting the box.

"There wasn't much, professor, just the letters, two drink packages, and my mother's cloak," I said, pulling out one of the said drinks and popping the tab.

"May I see it?" he asked.

I nodded, put my drink down, and reached into my bag. I watched Ozpin let out an involuntary gasp as I withdrew the white and red cloak. I handed it to him and he seemed to be fighting to keep his emotions under control. He examined it for a little bit before handing it back to me.

"How is this possible? You're older than Ruby, and yet you were born after her supposed death. How?" he asked.

Ash shrugged, he was smart, but he didn't do physics. "Maybe she was flung not only across space, but time as well," I said, "Meaning that while in this world, I should be younger than Ruby, I'm older because Summer was transported a couple years into the past as well."

Ozpin nodded. "Qrow is on a long-term assignment at the moment, but will you visit Tai-Yang?" he asked.

"Give me an address and I'll pay him a visit, but not for a few weeks, I need this to sink in myself before I explain it to the man I suppose I could call my step-father," I said.

Ozpin smiled at that, and handed me a slip of paper. "Here's his contact info, I'll tell him to expect some form of contact from a Beacon student within the next few weeks."

I nodded and turned to leave, until I remembered something. "Oh, and we met two more friends while on mission. Don't worry, they're no threat, they'll be calling us if there's any unusual movement from the White Fang or Torchwick."

Ozpin nodded and excused us.

"If you need us, we'll be in the infirmary, visiting Bai and Rowan," Ash said.

And with that, we left his office, leaving him to his thoughts and his alcohol. It was going to be a sleepless night for a few people, more than likely including us.

* * *

><p><strong>This took me a while to finish and I'm glad that it's over. Next order of business:<strong>

**How do you like the new characters? Can you guess who they are based on?**

**How about that nice little shot of Ruby worried about Rowan? I think he might like it and just not be telling me so.**

**I'm thinking about adding ONE more OC, and since I'm pretty much out of ideas, I turn to you, the readers to help me out. Give me as much information as possible on your OC, including whether they are originally from Remnant or not, the weapon and appearance, and a theme song so I can get a vibe for the character and we're in business.**

**Oathkeeper0317, you are not allowed to participate in this for the reasons we discussed a couple weeks ago. Also, your OCs are too OP for my tastes, sorry.**

**See you next time!**


	11. ANNOUNCEMENT 2

**I'm sure you have all heard about the tragic death of our inspiration, my inspiration, Monty Oum. I'm not going to go into the full emotional outburst thing, since that's not really me, but I'm just going to make a couple of announcements:**

**1. After Chapter 10 is released, I'm going to go dark for about a week while I wait for news on the possible continuation of RWBY.**

**2. The second part of the first story of my one-shot series will be out in a couple weeks.**

**3. Anyone who wants to send me an OC should PM me with the information on the OC. (I will take it in the reviews if you are a guest)**

**4. I would like to pay my respects to Mr. Monty Oum, the one who made this story possible. Mr. Oum, I salute you.**


	12. Bonus: Tribute

**Normally, I would post this under the extra story only. This is too important to not post on the main one too. Remember him, but do not ever, say goodbye.**

"I believe the human spirit is indomitable. If you endeavor to achieve, it will happen given enough resolve. It may not be immediate, and often your greater dream is something you will not achieve within your lifetime. The effort you put forth to anything transcends yourself. There is no futility, even in death." – Monty Oum

**Bonus Chapter: Tribute**

**Normal POV**

Team RWBY was walking down the hall towards their dorm room. Weiss looked a irritated at the pun Yang made and Ruby was laughing while Blake was reading as they walked. They had passed what they had thought was an empty classroom when they heard a lot of shouting.

"What was that?" Weiss asked, surprised by the sudden outburst from the room.

"Whoever it was, they sounded oddly familiar…" Ruby said.

Blake's ears perked up, though she didn't let on about it. "That sounded like SABR."

"What's got them so worked up?" Yang wondered.

"I don't know, but they aren't usually that loud. Let's go see what's going on," Ruby said, walking towards the closed door.

As quietly as they could, Team RWBY opened the door to see what was going on. They saw Team SABR huddled around what looked like it could be some sort of video call, but from where they were, they couldn't see who they were talking to.

"What do you mean, 'He's dead'?" Silver was shouting at whoever was on the other end of the call.

A woman's voice spoke, "It's exactly what I said Silver. He's gone." At those words, Silver went from anger to sadness in seconds.

"What happened?" Rowan asked, masking his emotions without a trace.

"He suffered from an allergic reaction and slipped into a coma. I'm sorry guys, he wasn't able to recover," the mystery woman said.

"Send us the video of the podcast later, would you? We'll grieve in our own way," Ash said.

"Will do Ash. I'll talk to you guys later, okay?"

"Yeah. See you later," Silver said, and he ended the call.

The tension within the room could have been cut with a knife, but RWBY still walked quietly into the room, albeit nervously, while SABR seemed completely oblivious to them.

"Hey… guys? What was that about?" Ruby asked nervously.

That was enough to snap the four boys out of their thoughts. Silver's head snapped up from where he was sitting at the desk, his eyes filled with anger and sorrow, a look Blake knew all too well. Before anyone could do anything, Silver disappeared in a flash of lightning. Blake ran out the door after him, having an idea of where he might go. Weiss tried to approach Ash, but when he noticed her approach, he just allowed himself to phase through the floor into the level below them, causing Weiss to leave to try to find him as well. Ruby was almost right next to Rowan when he flickered into his invisibility and fled through an open window. Ruby used her speed to race out the door to try and find him. Through all of the commotion, Bai had just sat there, looking at the ground, making no attempt to leave the room.

When he noticed that Yang had taken the seat next to him and was looking at him in worry, he said, "We'll be alright, Yang, we just need a little bit of time."

"What happened though?" she asked, "You guys were really worrying us, and its not like Rowan or Ash to push us away, heck, even Silver shouldn't have run like that."

"We just got a call from Silver's family," Bai said.

Yang stared. "What happened?"

"None of his family died, if that's what you're thinking. It's so much more than that, even if we didn't even know the guy personally."

"Okay, then what's the deal with the guy then? What made him special to you guys?"

"He's the one who inspired us to become Huntsmen. He wasn't one himself, but he taught us all about the Grimm and Beacon, and did many other things for all of his fans. Whatever he did, brought joy to all of his fans who saw his work, and he just died a couple of days ago."

Yang didn't really know what to say. She had lost her mother when she was young, so she knew loss, but this seemed, different somehow.

"You know what Yang?" Bai said.

"Yeah?"

"Would you like to hear a quote that he used to always say?"

"Sure, what is it?"

"I've decided to help carry on what he lived for, which reminded me of this quote: 'Keep moving forward'. Think about that for a little while." Bai then left the room, shortly followed by Yang, hoping to get more answers from him.

**Ruby's POV**

I was running top speed across the school, looking everywhere I thought Rowan could have gone to. Then I realized exactly where he had to be.

I slowed down once I reached the corner and walked silently into the weapon shop. At one of the back workbenches, I saw Rowan working on his rifle. As I approached him, I realized that he wasn't actually doing anything, just disassembling and then reassembling his rifle over and over again.

"Rowan? What's wrong? I know something's bothering you, and I really want to know what it is," I said.

He stopped working and slowly turned around, a look of sadness in his eyes. He sighed and said, "Sorry about that, we were just really wound up from the news that Silver's mom gave us. None of his family died, but the man who inspired us all died a couple days ago."

"Oh…" I said. I had my own sadness from when my mom died.

"Rowan, what was he like?"

Rowan looked at me for a little while before saying, "How to explain a man you never personally knew…"

That one caught me off guard. "You didn't even actually know the guy?"

He nodded. "We didn't actually know him, but that doesn't make us any less sad about his death. Ruby, this man, he inspired many, and he enjoyed what he did, and what he did, brought joy to people all over the world."

I nodded with a new understanding. "Well, at the very least, now he is in a better place!" I said, trying to cheer him up.

He smiled a little bit before saying, "Ruby, would you like to hear a quote from him?"

I nodded, wanting to hear whatever it was.

"He once said this: 'Guys… Life… it's pretty awesome. Just keep at it. And I'll keep going too'."

I just looked at him and said, "Why did he say that?"

He smiled a little more and said, "Because he loved his fans and never shot anyone down, he just told them how they could do what they did better."

**Weiss' POV**

It took me a while to find Ash, seeing as he had the advantage of not having to worry about trivial things, such as doors or walls, but I finally found him outside, sitting on a bench on some sort of balcony area.

"Ash Winters!" I said with concern instead of a yell, "Do you have any idea how worried I've been about you?"

"Hello to you too Weiss," he said nonchalantly.

I huffed, this was not going to be easy, but I had to find out what the problem was.

"What happened? Who was that you were talking to?" I asked.

"The man who inspired us to get where we are today died a couple of days ago. As for who we were talking to, that would be Silver's mother," he said.

"What exactly did he do to inspire you?" I asked curiously.

"He was an inspirational person. He didn't necessarily care what people thought of him, he kept working to make things better, and the things he did, always made people smile."

"He sounds like a good person. Did you know him?" I asked.

He laughed a little at this. "No. No, I didn't know him, none of us did, but I sure do wish I had."

"Then how are you so sad?"

"Because he's the one who always made people smile, Weiss. Even when he wasn't working on one of his projects, he found a way to make people smile."

"Now I wish I knew him."

I saw Ash struggle with himself when I said this until he finally said, "I do too, Weiss. Actually, would you like to hear a quote from one of his works?"

"Sure."

"He put this at the start of one of his videos once: 'Everyone is entitled to their own sorrow, for the heart has no metrics or form of measure. And all of it… irreplaceable'."

"That was amazing…" I said, feeling tears in my eyes.

"Yeah," Ash said, "And so was he."

**Blake's POV**

It took me an hour or so to find Silver, by that time the sun was setting, and he was venting some lightning into the sky, apparently relieving some stress. He was on the roof of one of the higher towers, now looking calm, watching the sunset.

"Silver?" I said, confused by the change of attitude, and taking a seat at the edge next to him.

"Hey Blake," he said, "Sorry for the outburst. I just have a lot on my mind. Hearing about the death of someone I respected and inspired me was something that I couldn't really deal with very well."

"I was just concerned by the look you had in your eyes when we walked in earlier. I wanted to make sure you were okay."

He sighed. "I'll be okay. It was just a shock for me. It really did feel like the guy was immortal, despite being only 33. I had hoped to show him my ideas and get his feedback. Well, they say the good die because they have already learned what they can from life, I wonder if that's true."

I stayed silent, I knew that there were many in the White Fang who had spoken out against the violence, but as far as I knew, they had either gone into hiding, or were simply never heard from again.

"You know, Blake," he said, "I don't think I'll ever be able to forget what he did for me and all of his other fans. He spread joy wherever he went. I guess that's why I respected him so much."

"He sounds like he was a really good person," I said.

"He was Blake," he said, "I just wish I had had the opportunity to meet him. Maybe in another life, next time."

"I wish I could have known him," I said, "He sounds like he would have been an interesting person to talk to."

"He was a person who wouldn't really hate on something, he would just tell you how it could be better, and I'm sure he would have loved to meet you too Blake." Silver said the second sentence as if he already did, but I let it slide, it was a question for later.

"Hey, Blake, would you like to hear a quote I learned from a project he worked on before he died?" Silver asked.

I nodded, wondering what Silver was about to say that could be so important to the man's memory.

"It went something like this: 'Never say goodbye. If you don't say goodbye then you aren't really gone, you just aren't here right now.'"

I sat for a moment, and thought about what he just said. "I've never thought about it that way."

"I hadn't either, until I heard it, but now you know why you will never, ever hear me say goodbye," he said, "Because I will never be gone, and neither will my friends with me, because I will never say the words that declare they're leaving."

"So, what was his name? I don't think you ever mentioned it," I said.

He paused for a moment and said, "His name was Monty Oum, he died February first, and he will be missed."

"Death is nothing, but to live defeated and inglorious is to die daily." – Napoleon Bonaparte

**There you have it folks, I'm still shocked by the loss of the man who inspired us all. The rest of the stuff a the bottom is stuff I feel sums up the moment fairly well. Please check it out.**

"**A New Hope" by Broken Iris**

**From "Red Like Roses Part II"**

Red like roses

Fills my head with dreams and finds me

Always closer

To the emptiness and sadness

That has come to take the place of you.

**1981- 2015**

**Monty Oum, **

**you will be missed.**


	13. The Saber at the Cardinal's Throat

**I will never forget what Monty inspired me to do. But now I must "Keep moving forward". Here's the next chapter.**

"What we have done for ourselves alone dies with us; what we have done for others and the world remains and is immortal." –Albert Pike

**Chapter 10: The Saber at the Cardinal's Throat**

**Normal POV**

* * *

><p>Silver sat in the stands of the combat arena, watching as Jaune tried to catch his breath. Cardin Winchester stood across from him, not seeming tired in any way. Jaune was now using his sword for support while Cardin just laughed. Silver narrowed his eyes; he didn't like Cardin's behavior one bit. It was one thing to watch it as a plot point in a show, it was an entire other thing to see it with his own eyes.<p>

Jaune looking determined, rushed forward and slashed at Cardin, who just sidestepped and knocked the shield out of Jaune's hand, causing him to lose balance and hit the ground. Undeterred, Jaune charged again, and Cardin defended against the slash. Cardin said a few words to Jaune, and the blonde started to reply before getting kneed in the gut. Cardin was about to slam his mace down on Jaune when Professor Goodwitch called the match, much to Cardin's annoyance.

"Students," Goodwitch said, walking up to the front, "as you can see, Mr. Arc's aura has dropped into the red. In a tournament-style duel, this would indicate that Jaune is no longer fit for battle, and the official may call the match. Mr. Arc, its been weeks now, please try to refer to your scroll during combat. Gauging your aura will tell you when it is appropriate to attack, or when it is better to move to a more… defensive strategy." Jaune looked at his Scroll and sighed. "We wouldn't want you to get gobbled up by a Beowolf, now would we?"

"Speak for yourself," Cardin said, hefting his mace and walking away.

"Remember everyone, the Vytal Festival is only a few months away! It won't be long before students from other kingdoms start arriving in Vale, so keep practicing! Those who choose to compete in the combat tournament will be representing all of Vale." The bell rang and Jaune just got up with a dejected look on his face, with Pyrrha looking worriedly after him.

* * *

><p>Teams RWBY, JNPR, and SABR were sitting at the same table at lunch, Nora was telling a story while Ren corrected parts of the dream he now had fully memorized, Weiss was filing her nails, Bai and Yang were listening, though Bai was only half listening, Blake was reading a book, Rowan was absent-mindedly twirling a bullet casing, and Jaune was distractedly poking at his food. Ruby, Pyrrha, and Silver exchanged looks at Jaune's current behavior.<p>

"Jaune, are you okay?" Pyrrha asked, snapping him out of his trance.

"Huh? Yeah. Why?" He hurriedly said.

"It's just that you seem a little… not okay," Ruby said.

"Guys, I'm fine. Seriously, look," he said, holding up his thumb and smiling. No one was convinced. He heard laughing coming from another table and saw Team CRDL sitting around a brown-haired rabbit Faunus.

"Jaune, Cardin has been picking on you since the first week of school," Pyrrha said, sternly.

"Who? Cardin Winchester? No, he just likes to mess around, that's all, you know, practical jokes!"

"He's a bully," Ruby said flatly.

"Oh please, name one time he's 'bullied' me."

Everyone looked at him and started listing off times that Jaune had been bullied by Cardin, including a time he had been forced into one of the rocket-propelled lockers and sent flying out of the school.

"I didn't land far from the school!" Jaune said, trying to stay light.

"Jaune, you know if you ever need help, you can just ask!" Pyrrha said.

"Ooh! We'll break his legs!" Nora said loudly.

"Guys, its fine! Besides, its not like he's only a jerk to me! He's a jerk to everyone."

At this everyone turned as a cry of pain came from over where CRDL was sitting. Cardin was currently pulling on the rabbit Faunus's ears, saying, "I told you it was real!"

Having seen enough, and really being pissed off by Cardin in recent weeks, Silver's eyes sparked and he slammed his fist loudly on the table. There was a cracking noise as the table almost broke and Silver got up from his seat and walked over to where Team CRDL was torturing the poor Faunus. The rest of the group, minus the rest of Team SABR watched curiously. SABR just took pity on Cardin.

Cardin was about to take another pull on the ear when Silver grabbed his wrist and poured his soda right down the bully's back. Cardin released the ear and stood up in shock and anger.

"What the hell was that for?" he yelled.

Silver, however, ignored him for the moment, turning to the Faunus, he said, "Go ahead and go, I'll handle him." He then turned back to Cardin, his eyes going back to their look of rage, causing Cardin to falter a little bit. The Faunus went a short distance away and watched as the scene unfolded, the two boys now had the attention of more than half of the cafeteria.

"You think you're so tough, helping an animal like her?" Cardin asked.

"Yes, and I also think that I'm about a thousand times the person you could ever be," Silver said, an edge to his voice.

Cardin drew his mace, and said, "I'll show you!" He swung at the now positively sparking Silver.

Just before the mace hit, Silver disappeared in a flash of lightning. Cardin wasn't expecting to hit nothing, and lost his balance. Silver reappeared behind him, but now the pressure had gone up in the room, and the taste of metal filled everyone's mouth. Before anyone could do more than blink, Cardin had been struck by lightning.

"You want to pick a fight? Do it on the training floor next time," Silver said.

"You want a fight?" Cardin asked, "I'll give you a fight! My team versus your team, right now!"

Silver smirked. Cardin had taken the bait. "I'll do you one better Cardin. How about just me and one of my team mates?"

Everyone in the room instantly went wide-eyed at his proposition. Deliberately giving the enemy superior numbers was a risky move, but against the brute force of Team CRDL? There was no way they were going to be surviving this.

Cardin smiled cockily. "You're on! We'll see you there." Team CRDL left the cafeteria to get ready for the fight.

Silver then turned to the crowd and said, "I'd like for you all to come and watch the fight, I'm going to be saying a few words there as well." It was half request and half order.

"Hey Bai," Silver said turning back to the table.

"Yeah?" he said.

"Would you like to join me in wiping the floor with CRDL?"

Bai grinned. "Let's do it!"

Everyone, except for Ash and Rowan, stared incredulously after the two challengers. Ash and Rowan were just smiling madly. Teams RWBY and JNPR were more than a little bit scared by the looks on their faces.

* * *

><p>By the time Silver and Bai arrived at the combat arena, half of the stands were filled, and Team CRDL was standing at one end of the arena. The two entered the arena and Silver walked forward, his hand extended in what was supposed to be a friendly gesture. His eyes betrayed his true feelings of rage. Cardin grudgingly took Silver's hand and received a crushing grip from the less muscularly defined boy.<p>

The S and B of SABR readied themselves, but did not draw their weapons. Team CRDL had their weapons at the ready. The appointed referee set the rules and counted down the match.

"Three!"

Both teams tensed, getting ready to go.

"Two!"

"One"

Cardin and Russell readied themselves to charge.

"Begin!"

Cardin and Russell ran straight towards the two, Cardin going for Silver, Russell going for Bai. Silver and Bai still made no attempt to draw their weapons. Just as Russell was about to hit Bai, a wall of solid light appeared, trapping the attacker's wrist. Cardin brought his mace down towards Silver and felt it actually meet resistance that meant it had hit. He looked up in surprise as he realized that Silver had _caught_ the mace with one hand. His eyes were starting to change between gold and blue again.

"You really are arrogant aren't you?" Silver said.

Cardin had nothing to say as Silver through him back as Bai did the same with Russell. Without many other options, the four members of CRDL surrounded the two from SABR. Silver smiled at the situation CRDL had put themselves in.

Silver put on his sunglasses and shouted, "Bai! Lighthouse!"

Bai released a blast of light that disoriented everyone in the room. When the light had died down, the crowd was surprised to see all of CRDL down except for Cardin, with Silver standing in the middle with two smoking revolvers, and Bai holding his swords. He took off his sunglasses and looked at Cardin with a look of both satisfaction and anger. He holstered his revolvers and started walking towards Cardin. Bai decided to let Silver vent his anger, he needed the relief.

"I have a couple of ground rules for you Cardin," Silver said, seeming to get more pissed off with every step, "Rule One: Hurt or bully any more Faunus in _any_ way, and you won't be waking up until the end of the semester."

Cardin took a step back, but otherwise kept his composure.

"Rule Two: Bully anyone just for the sake of proving your 'superiority' ever again, and I won't have the same mercy I've been showing you all day."

Silver was only a few paces from Cardin by this point, and was readying his semblance for the final blow.

"And Rule Three: Never, ever underestimate the people you see based on appearances. You'll regret it, but I suppose you already know that, don't you?"

Cardin visibly gulped, and in a flash of light, Silver was right up in his face, he tried to defend, but Silver quickly punched him in the gut with a lightning punch, sending him into the air. Before he could come back down, Silver had jumped up and wit one final punch, sent Cardin into the floor, making a crater.

Silver landed and turned to the shocked audience, saying, "Those rules go for all of you as well. We are training to be guardians of both humans, and Faunus, not one or the other."

He walked out of the arena with his teammate and knew full well that Cardin was not going to abide by his rules, but he would deal with that later.

"Thanks for the help Bai," he said to his teammate.

"No problem, I've been wanting to let off some steam for a while now, at the very least, we should be seeing less activity from them."

"Yeah, but we're going to have to keep a close eye on Jaune from now on."

Bai nodded in understanding. "I'll give Jaune the advice he needs to hear. Mine combined with Ruby's should help him realize his mistake faster than last time."

"So, now what?" Silver asked.

"We could go finish lunch and do some homework."

"Lunch sounds good. The homework part… not so much."

They walked back to the cafeteria, smiling from our victory over CRDL.

* * *

><p>In his office, Ozpin smiled at the beat down the two members of SABR had given CRDL. He decided to do nothing about their excessive force used. That was exactly what was needed to help decrease the discrimination in his school. Now, what to do with Mr. Arc… Of course Ozpin knew his transcripts were fake, he was the headmaster after all…<p>

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><p><strong>It may be a while until the next update. I have stuff to do and a story to think about. Multiple stories really. One of which being a project I'm working on that will be completely original. So I have some work ahead of me...<strong>


	14. A Light of Wisdom

**Sorry if any of you were starting to get a bit impatient waiting for this chapter. I've been a bit busy lately, and this chapter will more than likely just be something I crank out to keep it going. OC submissions will probably be held until Chapter 15, so keep them coming! Enjoy!**

"We all have big changes in our lives that are more or less a second chance." –Harrison Ford

**Chapter 11: A Light of Wisdom**

**Bai's POV**

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><p>I sighed. It was going to be quite the night. Silver said he had other things to do, so here I am sitting on top of a rooftop to make sure nothing happens that isn't supposed to happen to Jaune. I watched as Jaune and Pyrrha came through a door on the rooftop below me, and could barely suppress a chuckle, despite the seriousness of the situation, when I heard Jaune's assumption that Pyrrha was telling him to commit suicide along with Pyrrha's very quick and surprised reaction.<p>

"_Although,"_ I thought, _"It kind of loses its humor in this now very real situation…"_

Currently, the two teammates were arguing about Jaune's status at Beacon, and how Pyrrha wanted to help Jaune become a better fighter.

"_If this is a part where this world should split with the show, it should happen RIGHT NOW!"_ I thought.

Jaune, with his pride still hurt after the class with Oobleck earlier, refused, and when Pyrrha tried to convince him further, he revealed the fact that his transcripts were fake, earning him a few more silent curses about his stupidity from myself.

"_He really shouldn't be throwing that out there when he doesn't know who could be listening,"_ I thought.

Unfortunately, I couldn't let anyone but Jaune know that I was watching, which meant making sure he was alone before I started talking to him, and from what I remember, that was still a while from now. I continued to watch as Pyrrha left, leaving Jaune alone on the roof. His solitude did not last as I watched Cardin climb onto the roof from his dorm room window.

Cardin proceeded to very passively blackmail Jaune about his enrollment at Beacon and 'assure' Jaune that he wasn't going to be telling anyone about his fake transcripts. I was tempted to simply nail Cardin then and there, but decided to do it later. After a couple of minutes, Cardin climbed back through the window to his dorm, having told Jaune to do the extra homework that Oobleck had given them earlier.

I sighed and quietly jumped down behind Jaune. He was still on the ground from the suffocating headlock that Cardin had put him in during their 'talk'.

"You know," I said, startling the guy, "You really should have taken Pyrrha up on her offer to help you."

"How long have you been listening?" he asked.

"Ever since you and Pyrrha first came to the rooftop."

He groaned. "So? Are you going to tell me that I should leave? That I'm a failure as a huntsman and as a person?"

I raised an eyebrow at this. "No, I was actually here to tell you that SABR has your back, even if your transcripts are fake."

"But why?"

"First off, we see a lot of potential in you. You just need help for it to manifest itself. Second, we already knew that your transcripts were fake."

"Then why didn't you rat me out? And how did you know?" he asked, surprised at our actions.

"Like I said, we saw potential in you. As to how we knew, well, one of the first things that our team did was set up an interface that would allow us access to student records in case we needed info for assistance on a mission or something like that, and we also made sure that no messages could go in or out of this campus without us knowing about it."

"I get the student info thing, but why the message interception?" he asked, now curious.

"We needed it just in case of either an issue coming up that would need our attention that we didn't need the professors asking about why we wanted to know, and also just in case of espionage."

"Espionage?" he asked, "Why would anyone infiltrate and try to disturb a school like Beacon?"

"You'd be surprised," I answered simply.

"Anyways, you were saying?"

"Yeah, Team SABR has your back, we, mostly me, will be making sure that CRDL doesn't step too far out of line. Other than that, we figure that you can fight through this battle and come out on top."

"You do? Why? Cardin's a lot tougher than I am!"

"Who said anything about matching his _physical_ strength? All you have to do is show him what you are truly capable of and he'll back off."

"You're sure?" he asked, still looking conflicted.

"Completely. Don't worry about it. But we do need you to play along with Cardin for a little while. Sorry, but we can't risk your expulsion."

"I get it."

"Cheer up bro," I said, taking out my bow, "At least he'll have a little bit of a limp tomorrow!"

"Wait… What?" he said, now looking much more confused.

I raised my bow and willed an arrow to form from light. I fired and used my semblance to manipulate the arrow's trajectory, causing it to do a 180 and go through CRDL's window. We heard a shout of pain and outrage, followed by a thump.

I smiled at the blond-haired boy next to me saying, "See? Now he'll have a limp tomorrow."

He managed to smile weakly and said, "Thanks, I'll think about what you said."

"_No you won't. You're not going to start until that field trip to Forever Fall next week,"_ I thought.

I said goodnight to him and went back my dorm. This was going to be a long week.

* * *

><p>It had been almost a week and I had helped Jaune more times than I could count. If he was walking to a class and CRDL was making a move towards him, I would cause some sort of diversion, typically by either blinding them, bending the light around Jaune so that they wouldn't see him, or nailing them to a wall for a few minutes. They must have been extremely stupid not to connect these events, but I figured it was because they were able to get to him whenever I wasn't around to stop them. As long as Cardin felt he was able to get to Jaune without too much interference, Jaune's position at Beacon was safe. Not that it was really in danger at the moment, Ozpin already knew his transcripts were fake, even if he didn't tell the other professors. From the conversation I had had with Ozpin earlier, he was just treating this situation like a test of character for Jaune. I had no problem with this, but I didn't tell this to Jaune. I needed Cardin to feel like he still had control over Jaune, otherwise he would continue to bully the guy.<p>

Tomorrow was the field trip to Forever Fall and what I knew was more than likely to be his last day on the job. After I no longer have to watch out for Jaune, I know I'm going to be kicking CRDL's asses all over the forest. I had let Silver take them out during that sparring match because he was the one making a point. It was my turn to have some fun.

* * *

><p>The next day, my teammates and I were walking with RWBY, JNPR, and CRDL in Forever Fall Forest, Professor Goodwitch in the lead. Jaune was carrying a large crate of glass jars to gather sap from the trees in at the back of the group.<p>

"Yes students," Goodwitch was saying, "the forest of Forever Fall is indeed beautiful, but we are not here to sightsee. Professor Peach has asked all of you to collect samples from the trees deep inside this forest, and I'm here to make sure none of you die while doing so." Jaune could be heard panting at the back of the group whilst carrying the heavy case, not paying attention to where he was going, and bumping into Cardin, earning an angry glare from the larger teen.

"Each of you is to gather one jar's worth of red sap," Goodwitch continued, "However, this forest is full of the creatures of Grimm, so be sure to stay by your teammates. We will rendezvous back here at four o' clock. Have fun!"

I watched as Cardin smirked and said, "Come on buddy! Let's go."

Jaune looked disappointedly at Pyrrha and the backs of his retreating teammates, sighed and left with Cardin. I knew that there was no way I was going to be able to help him, whether I wanted to or not. It was his turn to make some decisions and fight his way out.

Just in case something unexpected happened, Silver, Ash, Rowan, and I had all agreed to stay just out of sight from where CRDL and Jaune were. I had fairly quickly collected my sap, and was now watching the spot where CRDL and Jaune lay, looking over a small ridge. The others would have been with me, but Silver said he still had to make a couple of phone calls and have a quiet conversation with Goodwitch about something, and Ash and Rowan had gone to hangout with Weiss and Ruby respectively.

I was a just outside of earshot, so I couldn't hear exactly what they were saying, but I didn't need to, I already knew exactly what Cardin wanted.

I watched as Cardin pulled out a box of what I knew were Rapier Wasps, and then bring Jaune up to stand, shoving a jar of sap into his gut. He said a few words to Jaune before he brought the jar back to throw it at Pyrrha, Cardin's intended target, showing a considerable amount of conflict on his face, he stood there with his arm back for a good while, before finally bringing his arms down and throwing the jar at Cardin instead. I grimaced at the look Cardin was giving Jaune. I guess some things just won't change. Cardin didn't get far with beating Jaune before an angry roar sounded from behind the group.

The largest Ursa I had ever seen burst into the clearing. Its attention was focused entirely on Cardin, due to the sap that was still splattered across his armor.

The rest of CRDL ran in the opposite direction with Russell shouting, "That's a big Ursa!"

The Ursa smacked Cardin to the side and continued focusing on the larger teen, leaving Jaune confused on why it had left him completely alone. Cardin slowly backed away from the advancing Ursa, bringing up his mace to defend himself, but it was knocked out of his hand almost as soon as it came up.

Cardin tried to run away, but was quickly knocked back. I watched as Ruby, Weiss, and Pyrrha arrived, accompanied by Silver, Ash, and Rowan. The Ursa went for what would have been a near lethal slash at Cardin, but was blocked by Jaune's shield. Jaune was barely maintaining his shield's position, and was actually starting to lose coverage. Weiss was readying her rapier, but Pyrrha stopped her from attacking.

Jaune managed to land a diagonal slash across the Ursa's chest, making it stagger back. The Ursa tried to slash at him again, but Jaune rolled to the side while the creature tried to sweep his legs out from under him, making him jump to avoid the claw before being sent rolling across the clearing and standing back up. He charged recklessly at the Ursa, but it just sidestepped and hit Jaune in the back as his momentum carried him past.

Jaune rolled to a stop at another end of the clearing. He stood back up and look at his Aura meter on the inside of his shield. The Ursa came to a stop a few yards from him and roared. They both charged for a final attack, and as he swung his sword, Jaune brought his shield down, leaving himself wide open. I saw Pyrrha lift her arm and a dark aura surrounded her arm and Jaune's shield, as the shield moved back into a defensive position. The Ursa's claw struck Jaune's shield, forcing him to crouch. Using this low point as leverage, Jaune slashed his sword at the Ursa's neck, cutting the creature's head off.

Those watching at the edge of the clearing sheathed their weapons and left to head back to Goodwitch. Silver stayed and joined me where I was standing.

"Do you think I should beat up Cardin now or later?" he asked, watching as Jaune went over and helped Cardin to his feet.

"Don't do it this time, he nearly got killed by an Ursa today, not to mention the injury I gave him last week."

Silver shrugged. "I'll give him a warning then."

I smiled. "Yeah, you do that."

I walked over to where Jaune was and said, "Nice job Jaune. That was a good kill, but that doesn't mean you shouldn't be thinking about Pyrrha's offer, got it?"

He nodded. "What's Silver doing?" He gestured over to the retreating forms of Cardin and Silver.

"Oh, right, Silver's 'talking' to Cardin about his mistakes and what he's going to do if he continues to make them."

Jaune grimaced.

"Exactly," I said.

We were about to leave when a low growl could be heard coming from behind us. Jaune and I turned to see Beowolves emerging from the trees behind us. I lost count of how many there were at around twenty, so I quickly drew my bow and summoned some arrows into existence.

"Jaune, run and get help, I'll hold them off!"

"Are you sure? There's so many!"

"I've got it! Just go! You're low on Aura, so you can't fight right now!"

He nodded and ran in the direction the others had gone.

"Alright," I said, making more arrows appear on the bowstring, "Who's first?"

* * *

><p>Several Beowolves charged and I let my arrows fly, manipulating the light they were made of so that they would each hit their mark. Each of the creatures fell, an arrow slowly disappearing from each of their skulls. Several more charged and I leapt into the air, dropping a ball of light as I left the ground. The Grimm grouped around the spot I had been in before being disintegrated in a flash of light.<p>

Roughly two-thirds of the pack was still standing and I was definitely going to be overwhelmed unless I could figure out a way to take them all out quickly. My mind was going at a mile a second, and then I had an idea.

I focused all my energy into making four walls of hard light, boxing in the pack. I then made a roof and slowly lowered it. Once it got down to a certain level, I started hearing howls of pain from the box I had made, but I ignored them, I needed to stay focused.

I kept lowering the roof of the box until it hit the ground, before allowing the box to dissolve. All that was left were a few dozen crushed Beowolf carcasses.

It suddenly felt very hard to stand; I had drained much more energy than I thought I would. I suddenly heard clapping behind me and turned to see everyone, save CRDL, applauding from the impressive show I had apparently shown them. Professor Goodwitch seemed a bit stunned at my capabilities, but was applauding nonetheless.

I smiled at them and slowly walked back over, strength coming back into my legs.

Ash and Silver were shaking their heads in amazement while Rowan muttered, "Show off…"

Teams RWBY and JNPR just looked completely blown away by the control I had over light.

"How did you do that?" Yang asked.

"Lots of practice along with a lot of focus and energy. I spend a lot of energy when I do that."

Goodwitch finally recovered from her shock and said, "Well then, now that we've seen Mr. Ryder's great skill, I feel we should head back to the school."

She then led the class back to the airships to be transported back to Beacon.

* * *

><p>Later that night, I was back on the rooftop, watching as Jaune stared off into the distance.<p>

Pyrrha came through the door and said, "No Cardin tonight? I thought you two were best buds."

Jaune turned to her with a look of sadness on his face. "Pyrrha, I'm sorry. I was a jerk. You were only trying to be nice, and I… I had all this stupid, macho stuff in my head-"

Pyrrha cut him off, saying, "Jaune, it's okay," getting a smile out of him and smiling back, she continued, "Your team really misses their leader you know."

She started to walk to the door as she said, "You should come down! Ren made pancakes! No syrup though, you can thank Nora for that."

"Wait!" Jaune said, just before she reached the door. "I know I don't deserve it after all that happened, but would you still be willing to help me… to help me become a better fighter!"

I saw Pyrrha turn away from Jaune for a second, closing her eyes and smirking. She turned back around, walked up to him, and pushed him to the ground.

"Hey!" he said in protest.

"Your stance is all wrong. You need to be wider, and lower to the ground." She extended her hand to help him up and said, "Let's try that again."

I smiled to myself; things were falling into place rather nicely. Now all we had to do was prepare for Blake's revelation and we would be set for the semester. I stood up and headed back to my dorm, I was going to need the sleep if I was going to be any more planning with the rest of my team.

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><p><strong>That's that. Just what is Silver so busy doing? Was that but a fraction of Bai's power? What's really going on between Ash and Weiss, and Rowan and Ruby?<strong>

**Ash and Rowan: None of your freaking business! That's what!**

**Anyways, I still need more submissions for OC ideas! Remember, you have until Chapter 15 to get them in! After Chapter 15 is released, the "co-writers" and myself will be going through all submissions and choosing one. The winner will be announced at the end of Chapter 16 or 17. So show me what you've got. **

**As always, please feel free to leave a review with suggestions or feedback. Also, follows and favorites do help keep the motivation to keep the story rolling so those really help.**

**See you all next time!**


	15. Of Gems and Swords

**I'm back with another special chapter guys! I would have liked to have posted this sooner, but planning stories like this takes a lot of time! Enjoy!**

"...A great love is a lot like a good memory. When it's there, and you know it's there, but it's just out of your reach, it can be all that you think about. You can focus on it, and try to force it, but the more you do, the more you seem to push it away. But if you're patient, and you hold still, then maybe... Just maybe... It will come to you."

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><p><strong>Chapter 12: Of Gems and Swords<strong>

**Normal POV**

It was early morning on the Beacon Academy Campus, the sun hadn't quite started to come up yet, and there was no sound except the occasional howl from the Emerald Forest. It was a Saturday morning, and students weren't expected to be up, much less, fully awake, for quite some time. There was an exception however for two students, one male, one female, both clad in red and black, who were heading toward the garage for an early hunting mission. They walked into the on campus garage, put on their helmets, got on the red and black motorcycle, the male steering with the female on the back, and they rode off towards Forever Fall, the location for their Grimm hunt.

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><p><strong>A Few Hours Later<strong>

**Rowan's POV**

I was tired. Ruby and I had been hunting on and off in this forest for five hours now. Last time I checked, it was around 10 o' clock, meaning that if Ruby and I didn't get back into Vale soon, Yang was going to obliterate me. No time to worry about that now though, Ruby and I had some how managed to get surrounded by a pack of Beowolves. Just great. Then I had a thought that made me go colder than the thought of Yang smashing my face in:

"_Wait, today's Saturday. If today's Saturday then that means…"_ I paled. I had completely forgotten about Valentine's Day!

Ruby noticed my change in demeanor and was quick to snap me out of it. "Rowan! Whatever you're thinking about right now, it's going to have to wait! We need to get out of this first!"

I shook my head and nodded. I then started to size up the pack that had surrounded us, looking for weak spots in its ranks. After finding what I could, I cocked my rifle and took aim.

"On my mark…" I said.

The front line of Beowolves charged.

"Now!" I shouted. I flickered into invisibility while Ruby disappeared in a flurry of rose petals.

Ruby was zooming around the clearing, slashing and firing at the creatures while I was quickly aiming, firing, and slashing at the creatures around me.

It took us roughly five minutes to cut the entire pack down, and by the end of the fight, both of us were panting in exhaustion.

"I think… we should call it a day… and go back into Vale…" I said between breaths.

"Yeah," she responded, "I'm too tired for another fight like that."

And with that, we made our way back to my motorcycle, leaving the disintegrating Grimm remains behind.

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><p><strong>Ash's POV<strong>

I was frantically working in the small kitchen that Silver and I had in our dorm, prepping food and an amazing cake for my plans tonight. Having the cake in the oven, and everything ready to cook, I checked the footage from the hallway camera to see that all of Team RWBY had finally left. Now they just had to stay gone for another hour or so and everything would work out. Now what did I do with that box?

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><p><strong>Silver's POV<strong>

"_I knew I should have done this earlier,"_ I thought as I hurriedly scribbled down a collection of page, line, and letter numbers.

Between helping to keep an eye on CRDL, and establishing contact and making an appointment with one of the professors at Signal, I had completely forgotten to set up my plan for today.

"_Hopefully tonight goes better…"_ I thought, _"If she shows up…"_

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><p><strong>Two Hours Later<strong>

**Rowan's POV**

After making it out of the forest, Ruby and I had an hour ride back to Vale, something that wasn't all that pleasant. When we were finally able to see Vale, I activated the com-link in my helmet to talk to Ruby, since there was no way she was going to hear me over the engine _and_ the wind.

She clicked her link on and said, "What's up Rowan?"

"I was just wondering if you wanted to get a bite to eat, and maybe go see a movie. That was a long hunt after all."

"You realize that when Yang finds out, she's going to murder you, right?" she asked.

"Who says she has to know?" I shot back, getting a muffled laugh on the other end.

"Alright then, where were you thinking we go?" she asked curiously.

"I hear that Kara's Café is pretty good."

"Oh yeah! I've heard of that place! That's supposed to be one of the best cafés in Vale!" she said, getting excited.

"Well then, I think we should hurry and get there, don't you?" And with that I revved the engine and sped up, going into the city.

* * *

><p><strong>One hour later<strong>

Ruby and I had managed to get a window table for two, with a good view of the rest of the city. The café was positioned in the southern part of the city on top of a hill with an excellent view of most of the city, and if you looked to the East, you could just make out the towers of Beacon.

Ruby was right about this place though. I had never been to a better café in the city, given I had only been into the city a few times when not on mission.

We had been talking for a long while after we were first seated and our orders taken. We talked about school, weapons, and other subjects while we waited for our food to be served, and even when it was served, we didn't stop talking while we ate.

We talked and ate for about an hour and a half before finally getting some cookies to go, and heading to a movie theater. Neither Ruby nor me were really into those mushy romance movies, so we opted to see a new action movie that had recently come out. We walked up to the ticket stand and I bought our tickets. We walked in and took our seats, waiting for the movie to start.

"_This day just keeps getting better,"_ I thought.

* * *

><p><strong>Ash's POV<strong>

After the cake had finished baking, it had taken me forever to put the frosting on completely.

"_Hopefully Weiss likes it,"_ I thought.

I looked at the clock and to my surprise it was already about four in the afternoon.

"_Time flies when you're working I guess…"_

I quickly, and carefully, placed the cake into its box while checking the camera footage to make sure that no one from Team RWBY had come back yet. Satisfied that no one had been seen going in or out, I took the box and walked down the hall towards Team RWBY's dorm. Checking to make sure that no one was nearby, I phased through the door and quickly placed the box on Weiss's bed with a note to her from me, and rushing out of the room to prepare for what I had planned for the night.

* * *

><p><strong>Silver's POV<strong>

I had finally finished compiling the note in an organized fashion and just needed to get this to Blake. I walked around the school looking for her until I finally found her in the library. She was deeply engrossed in her book, with some sort of thermos next to her, so I made sure that the note was secure and easily visible before walking over and placing it quietly in front of her, and continuing to walk. Now I just had to get a couple of things ready.

* * *

><p><strong>Rowan's POV<strong>

It had really been a long movie. By the time we got out of the theater it was going on six o' clock. But Ruby had other ideas than simply going back to Beacon. She wanted to go to the park, and as it was Valentine's Day, I complied, not that I wouldn't have complied on any other day.

When we arrived at the park, the sun was starting to set, so we found a large tree on a small hill and watched as the sun went down. After ten minutes of watching, the sun was finally completely down, making more colors appear than just the reds and yellows. Blues, purples, and pinks also came out, and we admired the beauty for as long as it lasted.

After a while, those colors too disappeared, leaving a dark blue. I was about to ask Ruby if she was ready to go when her head hit my shoulder. Her face was peaceful, and she had a small smile on her face as she leaned into me. I couldn't help but smile. I let the moment last for a while before finally leaning into her as she hugged me in her sleep.

"_Today… Today wasn't too bad…"_ I thought as I slowly drifted off to sleep, the lights of Beacon and the city seeming to be stars counting the possibilities in store for us.

The last thing I heard was Ruby talking in her sleep, saying, "I love you Rowan."

I smiled and finally fell asleep.

* * *

><p><strong>Blake's POV<strong>

I had been reading for what felt like minutes, but was more likely a few hours. I went to put my book down to take a few sips of my tea when I realized there was another book in front of me.

"_When did this get here?"_ I thought. Had I been that engrossed that I hadn't noticed anyone put this book in front of me?

Then I noticed there was a note attached to the book. It had a list of page numbers, line numbers, and letter numbers. Now I was curious. I took out a piece of paper and a pencil and went to work deciphering the message.

After twenty minutes of work, I finally deciphered the message so it read:

_How would you like to go out for some dinner? If you're interested, meet me in the garage at seven._

_-Silver_

I stared at the note in shock. I had never really had anyone express interest in me on Valentine's Day. I checked the time on my Scroll. It was 6:30. I quickly grabbed the books and my thermos before dashing to my dorm room to freshen up after having sat in that chair almost all day.

* * *

><p><strong>Weiss's POV<strong>

After a long day of studying, and numerous requests for me to go on a date with one person or another, I was ready to just lie down and go to sleep, but that was not to be for a couple of reasons. The first reason was that just as I was rounding the corner to my dorm, Blake ran quickly by me, not even seeming to fully register that I was there. I stood there, dumbfounded at what just happened, before finally walking into my dorm room. Once inside, I saw Yang was excitedly watching Blake as the raven-haired girl seemed to be rushing to change into a fresh set of clothes and freshen herself up as well.

"What is going on?" I asked.

"What?" Blake asked in confusion as she started to touch her hair up a bit.

"You ran right past me like you didn't even know me just now!" I said in outrage.

"You mean you don't know?" Yang asked.

"Know what?"

"Silver's taking Blake here out to dinner!" the blonde cheered.

I looked back at Blake. "When did this happen?"

"I don't really know. I was reading when I found a book had been set down in front of me without me even noticing. It gave a list of page numbers and lines, with instructions on finding the message. Once I deciphered it, I found the note was from Silver, and he wanted me to meet him for dinner in the garage, so I can only assume that we're going into Vale."

"Have fun then," I said.

"Thanks, I'll see you guys later." And she quickly ran out of the room.

"Good to see that two of us are having fun," I said, a little disappointed.

"Don't speak too soon, Weiss," Yang said, pointing at my bed, "Looks like something was left for you while we were all gone!"

I looked over at my bed to see a white box with a piece of paper on top of it. I looked at Yang with a raised eyebrow.

"Woah, no I didn't read the note or look in the box! I swear!" she said.

I went over to the box, picked up the note, and simultaneously opened the box. I gasped, almost dropping the note. Inside the box was a large cake shaped perfectly like my snowflake symbol. It even had all the gaps perfectly cut out! I gasped and nearly dropped the note. Yang noticed my sudden excitement and came over to see what it was.

"What's in the box W- Oh. Wow, that is amazing. Who left it here?" she asked.

I couldn't find the words for the skill that must have taken, so instead I read the note.

_Hey Weiss,_

_I figured you might like this so I delivered it early! Would you please bring it up to the roof at seven-thirty? I made dinner!_

_Thank you,_

_Ash_

Yang looked over my shoulder and read the note.

"Don't tell me he made that!" she said in surprise.

"I suppose I'll just have to ask him at dinner then, won't I?" I said, smiling.

I had honestly hoped that he would ask me out, but I didn't think he would do it in such a spectacular fashion.

"Well, if you'll excuse me," I said, walking towards the bathroom, "I have a date to get ready for!"

I closed the door just as I heard Yang snicker, no doubt having some sort of dirty thought.

* * *

><p><strong>Blake's POV<strong>

I was quickly walking toward the garage to meet Silver for dinner, but now I was getting nervous. By the time I got there, I would be running late. What if he gave up before I got there? I shook my head.

"_Hold it together Blake!"_ I thought.

When I finally reached the garage, I found Silver leaning against his bike with a white shirt and black suit jacket with matching pants and shoes.

"Hey Silver," I said as I approached.

He looked up and smiled. "I was starting to wonder if you were still in the library reading, or not."

I blushed. I almost had read through his requested meeting time, but I didn't tell him that.

Instead, I said, "As if I would miss this."

He raised an eyebrow at this. I resisted the urge to face palm myself for being so… tactless.

"Anyways," he said, breaking the silence, "Would you like to know where we're going?"

"Sure, you said we were going to dinner, but you didn't say where."

"We're going to a restaurant called North Forest Inn."

I was a bit stunned at this. That was one of the best restaurants in Vale, and he was taking me there? That place is expensive.

"Are you sure you're okay with taking me there? It seems like a bit much for a first date."

"It's fine. Besides, what better a place to get to know each other better? I've been busy lately, and haven't been able to talk to you guys as much." he said.

"Well, thanks for the invitation, should we get going?" I asked.

He paled slightly as he looked at the time. "Hope you're okay with a heart stopping speed. Otherwise, I might lose my reservation."

"Let's go then," I replied, smiling.

To say the least, it was a night to remember. It was a night filled with food and laughter. I was actually able to forget about my problems and worries for the night, and I actually felt better than I had in weeks. My mind wandered as we were riding home that night, wondering if we may be able to do this more often.

* * *

><p><strong>Weiss's POV<strong>

After I had finished getting ready, freshening up, brushing my hair, etc. etc., I picked up the box that contained the cake, gave a quick wave to Yang, who returned it with a smile.

I walked down the hall towards the stairwell that led up to the roof, and started climbing up the steps.

When I finally reached the top, I was a little winded, but otherwise ready. I opened the door, and once again, almost dropped what I was holding, in this case, the cake, in surprise. Ash had been busy. There he was, standing in a dark grey suit with a white rose in the front pocket. Next to him was a candlelit table with two covered silver platters and perfectly placed silverware and napkins. Then I looked back at Ash and saw that he was smiling at me, as if he knew what I was thinking. He probably had a good idea from the look on my face that I just couldn't suppress.

"May I help you to your seat princess?" he said.

In all my time here, I had never heard anyone say that without any sarcasm in their voice, but this was Ash, so he was probably just saying it for an added effect.

I decided to play along a little bit and said, "It's heiress actually."

His smile brightened a little bit more. "Of course it is."

He offered his arm, and I giggled a little bit at his obvious acting, but took it. He led me to my seat, and pushed the chair in for me. This just kept on getting better! When he had taken his seat, he dropped the majority of the act and became a little bit more natural.

He gripped the handles of the platter covers and said, "Presenting, a dinner cooked by myself," he lifted the covers, "grilled chicken and a salad!"

I stared at the plate in front of me. He had prepared this with an eye for detail. The arrangement of the chicken, salad, and dinner roll off to the side was perfect! He rivaled that of my family's personal cooks!

To check to see if he really did match them, I picked up my knife and fork, and cut a small piece from my chicken. I brought the piece to my mouth and started chewing. My eyes widened, I was wrong, he wasn't just a match for them, he was quite easily better than they were!

"What do you think?" he asked cheekily.

I swallowed before answering. "Ash… How exactly is it that you aren't working in the private district with cooking skills like this?"

"What do you mean? I get that it's good, but do you really think it's _that_ good?"

"My family's private chefs can barely match you!" I replied.

He blushed at that. He really didn't think his cooking was as good as I thought it was.

"I'm serious! This is amazing! You did everything perfectly!" I continued.

We continued to eat as we talked, going from subject to subject. His cooking skills, to school, to various other things, it was an amazing night, and I had fun for the first time in a while. We talked deep into the night, finishing our dinners, and eventually, our slices of cake, which he had apparently made himself as well.

It was late night when we finally finished talking, and had cleaned everything up. He had taken everything down but the tablecloth, and I waited for him to come back up before going down.

He came back up after a couple minutes of myself waiting, and picked up the tablecloth. I chose then to step up in front of him, as he would have walked right through the door if I hadn't.

"Hey Weiss, I thought you had already gone back to your room." he said, "Didn't you have things to do before tomorrow?"

I don't know what came over me, but I said, "Shut up Ash, you and I both know why I stayed up here." And then, without a second thought, I kissed him full on the lips. It lasted a few seconds, but for me it felt like forever. Then I broke away, smiled, and left without another word, leaving the red-faced, and dumbfounded teen on the roof.

* * *

><p><strong>Yang's POV<strong>

I sat brooding on my bunk for about half an hour after Weiss left. I didn't really understand how nobody had asked me to go on a date with them. I sighed, maybe at a later time…

There was a knock at the door just then. I hopped down from my bunk, and opened the door to see Bai.

"Hey Bai, what's up?" I asked.

"Hey Yang, I was just wondering if you had seen Rowan. He's been gone since four this morning with Ruby."

I shook my head. "I haven't seen either of them since this earlier either."

"Okay, well thanks anyway. I'll see you later Yang." He said.

I shut the door and sighed in disappointment before turning my thoughts to Rowan and Ruby. I was going to kill Rowan for keeping my sister out that long!

* * *

><p><strong>And… Done! Finally finished! Sorry if this special chapter seems a little bit late! On the bright side:<strong>

**Weiss and Ash are now official!**

**Ruby and Rowan are officially official!**

**Blake and Silver have started a relationship of sorts!**

**On the dark side:**

'**Rowan' may actually try to hurt me.**

**This took me longer than it should have to write.**

**Please leave a review! It helps!**

**OC contest is still happening! Keep the submissions coming!**


	16. A Rose of Silver and Gold

**Sorry for the late update! Was only just able to get this finished! Things have been a little bit hectic lately!**

**OC submissions are still being accepted! Keep them coming! I need the ideas!**

"My life is like the summer rose that opens to the morning sky, but ere the shade of evening close is scattered on the ground to die. – Patrick O'Kelly

* * *

><p><strong>Chapter 13: A Rose of Silver and Gold<strong>

**Normal POV**

Silver stood at the top of a snowy cliff overlooking a dark forest. He stood in front of the 'headstone' of Summer Rose. Despite knowing that she was alive, just not in this world, he still felt it appropriate to pay tribute to his mother's 'grave'. He had his hood pulled up with one hand in his pocket and the other holding onto a half-empty can of Coke, courtesy of the care package sent a few weeks ago. He had his messenger bag hung over his shoulder, carrying her white cloak and a few other things.

He couldn't help but smile at the handiwork of the stone. Both the rose symbol that took up most of the space, but the inscription as well:

_Summer Rose_

_Thus Kindly I Scatter_

Deciding to take his leave, Silver finished off the can and withdrew a water bottle. He filled the can up to the halfway point before withdrawing three roses from the bag as well. One rose was a pure, stainless white, another was a bright red, and the third was a deep crimson color.

He inserted the roses into the opening of the can, remembering how often he had done the same thing before at his grandfather's grave. He then set the can down and packed some snow around it to make sure it didn't fall over. Standing back up, he admired the roses then turned to walk back to his motorcycle, shooting any Grimm that got in his way.

* * *

><p><strong>Silver's POV<strong>

**An hour later**

It had been a while since I had taken _Silver Storm_ out for a ride, and I enjoyed it for all it was worth. Unfortunately, the location I was driving to was not the best place for a joyride. I was going to Signal Academy, the combat school that Ruby and Yang had gone to, for an appointment I had set up with one of the teachers there. I wasn't entirely excited about stepping foot inside that campus, mostly because Yang and Ruby told me that official Hunters and Huntresses, along with students at Beacon, were celebrities at the school. This didn't exactly have me in the greatest mood as I really didn't want that kind of attention.

Nevertheless, I agreed to meet the teacher in their office today at two-thirty. I really hoped that classes were out for the day when I got there, but I kind of doubted it.

* * *

><p>After another ten minutes of driving, I arrived at the school and parked my bike. I was starting to grow a little bit suspicious of the time this teacher had given me since the parking lot was still mostly full. I went to the main office and checked in to make sure they knew why I was there and get directions to his classroom. They gave me a pass along with the directions to his class, which I thanked them for before going on my way.<p>

As I walked through the halls of the school, I passed several students who were obviously on their way back to class. Each and every one of them got a look of awe in their eyes. Most of them admired my weapons and armor, while a few others who were bolder than the rest, actually asked for an autograph, which I grudgingly agreed to.

* * *

><p>Nine students, and three autographs later, I finally arrived at the correct classroom. Instead of simply walking in, I knocked on the door, just in case I was interrupting a lesson, which I was relatively sure I wasn't as the guy had probably written me into the lesson from what I guessed, and seeing who he was related to, I really shouldn't be all that surprised if he did.<p>

The door opened to reveal a tall, Caucasian man, who I must admit, was very impressively muscled. His eyes were a lilac color, and he had short, bright yellow hair. In short, he was like a much older male version of Yang. This was Professor Tai-Yang Xiao Long.

The moment his lilac eyes saw me, his face broke out into a very familiar looking mischievous grin. I inwardly groaned, knowing that all of my predictions were probably about to come true.

"Well hello there! Just the man I was hoping to see right about now!" he said, motioning for me to come in as he went back to the center of the room.

I just took my sunglasses off and surveyed the class in front of me. There were around 30 to 40 kids in here. Many were only half paying attention to what the Professor was saying as they had taken to sizing me up, mostly in awe of someone who shows so much combat experience.

"As I told you all earlier today," Tai-Yang said, "I have a special treat for you all! Today you are going to be able to see how skilled a simple hunter-in-training can be! Now, Mr. Aurelius here will be demonstrating certain skills of his, including his marksmanship, swordsmanship, and how he is able to effectively use his semblance in battle!"

I felt myself let off a spark of annoyance, which some of the more observant students noticed, he had obviously been talking to Ozpin about my skills and weapons as I had never mentioned anything about them. I was going to have a talk with Ozpin about later, and maybe I'd steal the coffee from the teacher's lounge, that would teach him to give out my information.

I put my bag down in the corner and walked over to him. "What would you like to start with?" I asked him, while pretending to address the class. I gave a small smile, showing off in front of the younger kids was a lot of fun after all.

"How about we start with a speed and accuracy demonstration?" he asked.

I shrugged and put my hands by my sides, ready to draw my revolvers as he withdrew six small clay targets.

"Let's see just how fast and accurate you can really be, Silver."

I just nodded.

"Alright, on the count of three!"

"One!"

"Two!"

I tensed, my reflexes about to kick in.

"Three!" he shouted as he threw the six targets through the air, sending them in all different directions.

As fast as lightning, I had drawn both of my revolvers and, barely taking time to aim, had turned all six targets to dust. I then re-holstered my weapons and waited, raising an eyebrow at the Professor as if to say, 'Is that all you've got?'

The entire class seemed shocked at this performance that took less than two seconds to complete. Even Tai-Yang seemed at a loss for words.

Then the entire class burst into applause, many of the students I had made out to be the more intelligent of the group applauding while still trying to comprehend exactly how I had done that in such a short amount of time.

"Well done Silver! It seems that Professor Ozpin was understating it when he said you were a quick shot. On to swordsmanship!"

He pressed a button on his desk and a training droid appeared with it's sword hands at the ready.

"Just so you know, Silver, I've set this droid's program to its hardest difficulty, so don't be afraid to use any _special_ techniques you may have. You're going to need them."

I smirked, he had no idea just how quickly this would be over. I drew my swords and silently started charging them with my semblance, careful not to let them spark just yet, lest it give me away.

Tai-Yang gave me the same countdown as before and the match started as soon as he activated the training droid. I let the droid take the first few moves as I casually parried each strike. After about a minute, I decided that I had had enough and allowed my swords to freely display their lightning-charged blades, drawing looks of awe from the students watching and a smirk from Tai-Yang. I lunged at the droid and sliced it cleanly down and across the middle with my duel-wielding technique, and sheathing my swords as the parts fell to the ground.

As the class erupted in applause once again, Tai-Yang spoke once more, saying, "That, I must say, is one of the most impressive things I've seen a little while. Would you be so kind as to talk about your semblance a little bit and how it helps you in battle?"

I nodded to him before facing the class, who was now giving me their undivided attention.

"Before I start, who here has unlocked their semblance?"

Roughly half of the class raised their hands.

"Okay, now how many of you have what can be considered as an elemental semblance?"

Every hand except for one went down. A girl in the back still had her hand raised.

I pointed at her and said, "What is your semblance?"

She was a little shocked to have been singled out but answered, "Water manipulation."

"_Interesting,"_ I thought, but left that for later.

"Well, much like her, I can manipulate a certain 'element'. My semblance is lightning manipulation," I said, gaining excited whispers from them, I continued, "The differences I can guarantee between me and her are few, but great. You see, if someone such as me puts enough work into training their semblance, they can create certain techniques that will be extremely useful in battle."

I raised my fist and willed lightning to cover it.

"This kind of technique is one of the many I have developed. This helps me deal a great amount of damage in an amount of time where I might not be able to draw a weapon."

I then disappeared in a flash of lightning, and reappeared at the back of the classroom.

"This can help if I ever need to make a quick escape or entry, as well as speed around an opponent to disorient them as I attack."

I then started walking back up to the front of the classroom, observing the students as I walked by.

"There is one technique that I have, however, that I have never seen any hunter use before, and that's what makes me special. I have a technique that combines all of the others into one, but for now, I'll keep that name a secret." This caused the class to groan in disappointment.

"But," I said, "I will show you the biggest sign that indicates this specific technique. It's something that allows me to boost the strength of both my semblance and aura."

At this point, I now had a very attentive professor nearby as well.

"To demonstrate this, I'm going to need some lightning Dust. A vial, a bottle, even a weapon cartridge would do. Anyone got something?"

A boy in one of the middle rows withdrew a small vial and raised it. I walked over and took it. I pulled the cork out and sniffed it, drawing nervous looks from many in the room; fortunately, I knew what I was doing.

"Custom-made Schnee blend?" I asked the boy.

He nodded nervously.

I smiled. "My favorite."

I walked back up to the front, ignoring the confused look that the boy gave me.

"This ability requires that I absorb lightning or electricity in some form. Of course, the easiest way to do this is to get a hold of some lightning Dust. It simply touching me will cause it to be absorbed into me, but it takes longer for it to come into effect that way. So, the easiest way for it to come into effect immediately, is to do this."

I then took the vial of Dust, and downed it. Everyone was now looking at me as if I were insane. I waited, and then I started to see many confused looks.

"If you can feel the pressure that's building up in the room, that would be me. My power probably just doubled from that small amount of Dust."

I then took aim at one of the training dummies in the corner, and fired a bolt of lightning. When the smoke cleared, The upper half of the dummy was completely gone.

"And that was me holding back because I'd rather not destroy the classroom," I said casually.

Before anyone could say anything, the bell signaling the end of class rang, prompting many of the students to gather their supplies, and many of them to surround me, asking questions and requesting autographs. I patiently dealt with them until they were all finally gone.

* * *

><p>Tai-Yang was sitting at his desk with an amused look on his face.<p>

"You know," I said, "if I didn't know your daughter, I would have honestly been surprised by the fact that you dragged me into that."

He chuckled. "Yeah, well… your timing was very convenient, they've been losing heart lately and I needed something to help them continue to work hard."

"I'm glad to help," I said.

"So…" he said, becoming more serious, "Before we get to whatever you and Ozpin wanted to discuss with me, would you mind telling me how you were able to do all of that?"

I raised an eyebrow. "What do you mean?"

"It's just that I've only met five other people with that kind of natural ability for combat and aura and semblance manipulation. One has been missing for years, one is on a mission at the moment, two teach at Beacon, and the last one is dead."

I stayed silent.

"So I want you to tell me how someone who has only had about six months of formal training is already more skilled than some official huntsmen." He leaned in closer, "Who trained you, outside of Ozpin and Goodwitch?"

I sighed. "The answer to that is kind of what I was here to talk to you about. As to if they trained me, no, they didn't, but genetics is an impressive thing wouldn't you say?"

This got a very surprised reaction from the middle-aged man. From the look in his eyes, I could tell that he was struggling to figure out what I meant, and who I was talking about. I seriously doubted he would figure it out, so while he was thinking, I walked back over to my bag, picked it up, and brought it over to the desk.

I set the bag on the desk, snapping him out of his thoughts. He was eyeing the bag warily, knowing that there was something in here that he was going to see.

"You probably won't believe me when you hear what I'm about to tell you. I would be surprised if you did, because I'm still shocked from the revelation."

He narrowed his eyes at me, knowing I was going down a road with this that he wouldn't like.

"You might be angry with me when I'm done. You might even try to kill me, but that doesn't change the fact that everything I'm about to tell you is completely true."

He sat still, attention solely on me, so I continued.

"You mentioned that were only a handful of others who had such skill at an early age. There are two children of one of those people who share that natural affinity for combat."

He now looked confused, as he didn't seem to know of any of them having _two_ children.

"One of them is me," I said, "and the other… is Ruby."

I could practically see the pieces falling into place inside his head. I could feel the temperature in the room go up as he started to realize what I had just said.

"What are you talking about?" he asked, obviously hoping that he had misheard me.

"You know what I'm talking about, you're just denying it. I am a son of Summer Rose."

He jumped from his seat at this. "She didn't have a son! She didn't even have any affairs before she met me! Explain how you can be older than Ruby, but still be her son! She's dead."

I calmly replied, "That's true. Summer Rose is gone from this world, but I am her son for one very simple, but also very complicated reason."

"And that reason would be?" he asked.

"Space-time inter-dimensional travel."

This had the effect of calming him almost immediately. At this point, he was just looking a little miffed, but mostly sad.

"What's your proof?"

"I have two pieces of evidence. The first one explains why I'm here, and implies what happened to her. The other piece is the most solid evidence you could possibly ask for."

I then opened my bag and withdrew the letter she had written to me. I handed it to him, and he took it. He started reading it, and multiple emotions played across his face, and I could tell he was holding back his tears.

"I don't really need any more evidence, this is her handwriting," he said, "but the other piece of evidence you had was her cloak, wasn't it?"

I nodded, and pulled the cloak out of my bag, handing it to him. Tai-Yang held it up, and completely out of his super carefree and manly character, hugged it.

I smiled lightly at the sight. Mom sure did have good taste, tough when needed, and caring all-around.

After a couple minutes, he pried himself away from the cloak and handed it back to me.

"Here," he said, smiling at me, "you're the oldest living Rose, so I do believe that this belongs to you."

"I don't know about that sir," I told him, "but if I can give this back to Ruby without messing up the timeline and struggles that help her grow, I will."

He nodded. "That brings me to two more things. The first, I would really appreciate it if you would make sure to watch over your 'younger sister', and second, I would like to know how you know so much about this world, and how you seemingly know what's going to happen."

I weighed the merits of my responses to him about that second part, as far as I knew, it wasn't likely that he would be appearing in RWBY any time within the next few months, so I decided to tell the truth, which, admittedly, he did kind of deserve.

"I'll keep an eye on her, but I'll keep my distance, she has Yang already, and I can't allow her to know about my relationship with her for the foreseeable future."

He shrugged, and gave a slight nod of approval.

"As for the second part… Well, I don't think you'll believe me."

He cocked an eyebrow at me. "Try me."

"Alright then," I said, "Well, I come from another dimension, and as such, we have a differently built history and culture from this one. Getting to the point, one man at an internet based production company had an idea for a new show he wanted to make, he called this show RWBY."

He motioned for me to go on, showing no surprise, meaning he didn't know the name of his two daughter's team.

"This show was about four girls in their first year of training to become defenders of the world… and Ruby is the main character."

This time, he was showing mild shock on his face.

Recovering slightly, he asked, "So, what you're saying is that in your world, ours is fiction?"

"Yep."

"How is that possible?"

"Multiple universe theory."

"Explain."

"Basically, there are supposedly multiple universes, which makes it entirely possible for someone to imagine another one quite accurately."

"Alright then," he said.

It was my turn to be shocked. "You're taking this a lot better than I expected…"

"Son, I just found out that my late wife isn't actually dead. I'd say that my capacity for shock has been reached."

"Alright then. Well, I have plans for later, so I'll see you later Professor Xiao Long," I said, walking towards the door.

"Call me 'Mr.' or Tai-Yang. You're not one of my students, but you calling me 'Dad' would also be weird."

I nodded and continued to the door.

"And Silver?" he said, causing me to turn to look at him, "If you ever want to talk, my door is always open. I bet world-hopping comes with its share of home-sickness."

I gave him a smile. "I'll do that sir, thanks."

And with that, I walked out of the room, down the hall, and made my way back to my bike, back to Beacon.

**That one took a lot of planning, scrubbing plans, rewriting, scrubbing those, and then finally settling on a good piece. Sorry it took so long! I've received several great OC submissions from you guys, and I like a lot of the thought being put into them, big and small. Winner will probably be announced around chapters 16 or 17, due to the time it takes to write this stuff.**

**And how 'bout that Semblance description? Bet you guys can't figure out where I got the idea!**

**Don't forget to leave a review with story suggestions, and follow for more!**

**I'll see you guys… Next Time!**


	17. A Fox's Shadow

**This chapter wasn't entirely planned. It was spur of the moment, just like the Valentine's Day chapter. As such, I am pushing the deadline for OC submissions again. Thank you all for your submissions, enjoy the chapter!**

**Disclaimer: Aria Foxy belongs to Oathkeeper0317 in RWBY: The Assassin.**

"In every battle there comes a time when both sides consider themselves beaten, then he who continues the attack wins." –Ulysses S. Grant

* * *

><p><strong>Chapter 14: A Fox's Shadow<strong>

**Normal POV**

Indigo Cole wasn't having the greatest of days. Today, instead of helping Roman with his robberies, he was forced to do a bunch of errands for Cinder. Indigo would always screw around with Roman, Emerald, and Mercury, but he would never go as far he did with them with Cinder. She let off an air of power that surpassed his own, albeit by a fraction. That didn't mean he wanted to try to push his luck.

Most of the jobs consisted of tying up loose ends or doing recon for a future robbery. The current 'errand' he was doing for Cinder was investigating a strange energy signature that had appeared at one of their safe houses. Cinder and Roman had had everything cleared from the area so now all that was left was to see if he could find the source. He knew this was going to be _another_ boring job.

* * *

><p>After a long walk and free running across rooftops, he had finally arrived at the deserted warehouse. He brought out the scanner that Roman had given him and started searching for the source of the energy signal. When he found the spot the signal originated from, he was surprised to see that the readings were weaker than when they had been originally recorded, meaning that it wasn't Dust. Weird.<p>

He was about to turn back when the scanner started beeping in alarm. The energy readings were now off the charts, and he couldn't see where they were-

Suddenly, a flash of red light engulfed the room, forcing him to jump back and try to regain his vision.

After a few seconds, he was finally able to fully regain his vision, and looked around the room.

At first, nothing seemed to have changed, then he noticed a figure nearby just getting to their feet.

"_Maybe this'll be an exciting job after all,"_ he thought.

He sized up the figure in front of him.

They appeared to be a female fox Faunus. She had orange hair and green eyes, with her orange fox ears sticking out. The thing that struck him as most surprising was her clothing. From the looks of it, she had a simple button up Assassin robe that was colored a dark red and orange. Along with this, she had white pants and brown knee-high boots.

He was honestly hoping that it was just some strangely dressed member of the White Fang, maybe a high level operative, but he was proved wrong as soon as he saw the Assassin symbol on her belt and gauntlets.

"_Well, might as well bring her in,"_ he thought.

He stepped forward, not drawing a weapon just yet, and said, "I'm sorry, but you're not supposed to be here. I'd like you to come with me and meet my employer so that we can… talk."

She turned her gaze to him. Her gaze was calculating, but there was a spark of excitement as well. "Yeah? How about you tell me where I am, and who you work for first."

This was going south fast, and she appeared to see that too, but how?

"Well," he said, trying to gain control of the situation, "You are on the property of my employer who I cannot name as they would prefer to remain unnamed unless met personally."

"Really?" She said, "This place doesn't look like it's owned by anyone, and your employer sounds very suspicious for leaving this place in such a state." Now she was smiling, knowing she was right.

Realizing there was no way he was going to be regaining control of the situation, he decided to play with her head a little bit. "You know, I wasn't aware that there was an Assassin brotherhood on Remnant."

She was about to reply about it being a secret organization, before it dawned on her that he seemed to know a lot more than he let on. "How do you know about it?"

He actually laughed at that. "I know more about its history and the histories of the most famous Assassins than you could possibly imagine!"

Now she was nervous. How could anyone outside of the Assassins know the role they had played in history, maybe not as much on Remnant, but in another?

"Great, now I'm doing something similar to what GRAY did a couple months ago. Amazing," she muttered. Indigo was just able to hear her.

"Oh, so you've heard about stuff like this happening before huh?" he asked.

"I have, and in every story I heard about it, they were sent there to test each other's strength," she said, reaching to the back of her belt.

"So to send you back, we have to fight and see who wins. Am I right?"

"You are, shall we?" she asked.

Indigo drew his tomahawks. Maybe today wasn't as bad as he had first thought. "Let's go!" he shouted.

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><p>As they each ran forward, Indigo kept an eye on her hands, which hadn't come from behind her back yet. Just as he was about to hit her with a spinning slash of his tomahawks, her hands, which now had claw-like gauntlets, came forward at a speed that showed lots of practice. He slipped into the shadows at the last second in order to dodge and throw her off balance.<p>

She almost fell from all of the forward momentum that hadn't met anything. She looked around and saw Indigo behind her.

"How did you do that?" she asked, frustrated.

"Trade secret," he replied simply.

She was now slightly ticked. Indigo had been hoping for that.

She charged him again, and just as she was about to hit him, he dissipated into the shadows. Now she was positively growling in anger. She saw movement in the shadows and fired bullets from her gauntlets. Some had hit their mark apparently, as she heard a grunt of pain, and the subsequent reappearance of Indigo.

"You have got to be kidding me…" Indigo grumbled.

Now it was her turn to attack. While he was on the ground, Aria sent out her senses to the random scraps of metal and sent them forward, using her metal-manipulation semblance to guide it all towards Indigo, who was still recovering.

The metal caught the teen by surprise, and he was too shocked to do anything as it started surrounding him and fusing together, making a ball of metal around him. There were loud thuds and bangs coming from the inside, meaning he was trying to get out.

Aria then used her semblance to lift the ball into the air and started to spin it quickly around. Once it was at a decently fast speed, she dropped it to the ground, the crash making it fall apart. She went forward to investigate and found that Indigo wasn't there.

Just then, she felt a hard force kick her forward from behind.

"That really was good, I'm impressed by the thinking on that trap. There was one problem however, as long as there is a shadow, I can get out of any trap you have."

Both of them were tired, having both been given a decent beating from the other. They charged for one last attack, both of them shooting their firearms as they ran. Their Auras took the brunt of the attacks, then as they drew closer to one another, they switched to melee attacks and as they passed each other, Indigo spun on the spot and slashed her several times, while Aria hit him as many times as she could in vital areas.

Once they stood a few paces from each other, the attacks physical damage and pain showed. Indigo's vest jacket and shirt was torn, while Aria's Assassin armor was almost completely shattered. Indigo was clutching his sides from his injuries, about to keel over, but Aria beat him to it, she was in a lot of pain, but it was already subsiding due to her Aura healing her.

Indigo walked over to her and took out one of his wrist-mounted crossbows. Instead of shooting her however, he dropped it next to her. She took it and read the inscription carved into it.

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><p><em>Fighting from the shadows- for real.<em>

_-Indigo Cole_

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><p>"Is this… your name?" Aria asked.<p>

"It is."

She sighed and felt herself starting to fade, literally. "I'm Aria Foxy. Let's fight again sometime."

Indigo smirked. "We'll see if that can happen."

"See you later," she said, and then she was gone.

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><p>Indigo walked out of the warehouse a few minutes later and called Torchwick.<p>

"Yeah, Torchwick?" he said.

He listened to the questions on the other end of the line.

"Yeah, the warehouse is clear."

"No, it was just an inter-dimensional travelling Faunus."

He was now listening to an angry reply and laughter, probably Mercury and Emerald, in the background.

"Yes, Torchwick, I'm serious. I'll show you the evidence of the awesome fight we had when I get back."

He grinned at the low, almost inaudible muttering from the orange-haired man.

"I heard that Roman, I will be showing you how bad ass I am when I get back," he finished and hung up, starting back towards the main warehouse.

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><p><strong>So what'd you guys think? Awesome or what? Yes, Indigo is one of those guys who will fool with others for fun.<strong>

**So, OC submissions will be accepted until future notice. Assuming the next two or three chapters go up as planned, then chapter 17 will probably be the deadline.**

**Again, Aria Foxy belongs to Oathkeeper0317, along with Team GRAY as she mentioned them in the chapter. They appear in RWBY: The Assassin.**

**Stay cool, and I'll see you guys… Next time!**


	18. First Contact

**I'm back guys! This chapter and the following one or two (most likely two) are the culmination of a lot of planning and double-checking continuity. I've also been working on other projects, one of which have already come out and should be seen on my profile. I have other projects in planning, namely one I have the co-writers working on at the moment. These new projects will be released in the next month or so. So, without further ado, here's the next chapter!**

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><p>Unity is strength... When there is teamwork and collaboration, wonderful things can be achieved. – Mattie Stepanek<p>

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><p><strong>Chapter 15: First Contact<strong>

**Silver's POV**

I was blown back by the wind of the Grimm's attack. We wouldn't hold out much longer. Yang was getting back up, and she had started taking shots with her gauntlets while Ruby and Rowan aimed for vital areas and chinks in its armor. It wouldn't be enough. The only way to beat this thing was if I used it, but that would take a lot of energy I didn't have. Unless… Weiss! If she didn't have what I needed, we were doomed; I just had to get to her…

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><p><strong>12 Hours Earlier…<strong>

**Normal POV**

All was calm in Beacon Academy. Students were in their dorms or in the library relaxing or studying. Team JNPR was doing some studying in their dorm, Nora having been promised pancakes when they were done. Ruby and Weiss were also studying in their dorm room while Yang was on her bunk, relaxing, with Blake just below her, reading a book.

Team SABR had finished their homework and studying and was now playing a quiet game of cards in Rowan and Bai's room.

Each member was eyeing the others in an effort to see what the other was thinking. Their hands were getting smaller, and each of them was mostly looking at Silver, who only had one card left.

After a short time, Ash put down a queen of diamonds and said, "Last card."

All eyes were now on Silver as he just looked at the card Ash had put down. He slowly lifted the card in his hand to look at it and then reached for the deck.

Upon seeing the relieved looks on the rest of his team's faces, he pulled his hand back and put down his last card, an ace of diamonds, on top of the pile.

"Mau," he said.

Ash, Rowan, and Bai all sighed and threw their remaining cards on the table. He had won… Again.

"Seriously dude? How do you keep doing that?" Ash asked, looking a little miffed.

"Just a lucky day I guess…" Silver replied.

"I'd go more for the idea that you're cheating somehow," Bai said.

"Who? Me? Come on Bai, you know me! Do I look like I would cheat?" Silver asked with an air of drama.

Bai stayed silent.

"You know, I'd support that idea if you ever took your cards out of our sight, but you just leave them on the table, so if you are cheating, you sure are good at it," Rowan said.

"Thank you!" Silver shouted.

Before anymore could be said, all four of their Scrolls went off with their different tones and music. They all quickly picked them up and read their messages. Realizing they had all received the same message, they ran out of the room towards Ozpin's office, running into Team RWBY on the way. They all continued running, the urgency and suddenness of the message going out to all of them causing them to go as fast as possible and not ask questions just yet.

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><p>Upon arriving at Ozpin's office, the teams immediately knew something was up. Instead of his normally expressionless expression, Ozpin looked a like he hadn't slept for a while. On top of that, his entire body language screamed bad news.<p>

Once everyone had entered, Ozpin stood up and turned on a holographic screen displaying a map.

"I'm sure you're all wondering why I called you here on such short notice," Ozpin said, "The reason for this sudden call is a Grimm attack a couple hours North of the city, in a small village called Visegrád."

A small dot showed the location of the village on the map.

"Normally, we would send a team of Huntsmen to search for survivors and bring them to the city… This is not a normal situation. The inhabitants of this village are presumed dead because of the image that we received shortly before the village went dark."

The map was replaced by a blurry image of a large, winged Grimm. Silver took note of the shape of this Grimm and twitched when he started realizing what it could be.

Ozpin continued, "We have little information on this Grimm and are unsure of how old it is, or if it is a new type of Grimm. What we do know, is that it was powerful enough to take down the village in under an hour."

Weiss spoke up at this. "Why are you telling us this sir?"

Ozpin sighed. "I want to send your two teams in to investigate the village. We would send in a team of official Huntsmen, but they're all out on other missions, and your two teams together have the best potential to get in and out alive, given your variety of skills…" He said the last part and took a quick glance at Silver, who met it.

He concluded the briefing with, "You have two hours to prepare your weapons, armor, and supplies and eat a quick meal before your airship leaves. Good luck."

They then left to go get ready for their mission. Silver, however, stayed behind.

"Anything you'd like to tell me that couldn't be said while the others were here?" Silver asked.

Ozpin looked into Silver's eyes for a moment.

"You know, despite supposedly looking more like your father, you sure do take after your mother in some respects."

Silver stayed silent, waiting for an answer.

Ozpin sighed. "Yes, there is one more detail I took into account when searching for a group to send in. It was your _special_ skill you use in conjunction with your semblance and to boost its effects. I overheard you and Mr. Winters talking about it, and decided to keep an eye on you. The thing that sealed the deal was when Tai-Yang called me and told me about your demonstration of a particular part of your skill in his class."

"Then am I correct in thinking that you thought my skill was perfect for this mission?" Silver asked.

"You are."

"Thank you for answering my question. I'll see you later Professor." Silver said as he went through the door.

Ozpin sat for a moment before saying to himself, "He truly is like you, Summer, and I can only hope that he doesn't die before he is done here."

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><p><strong>Five Hours Later<strong>

**Visegrád, Northern Vale**

**Silver's POV**

To say that the village was decimated would be an understatement. If the buildings weren't completely demolished, they were either burning or half-gone. Cars, weapons, and debris littered the streets. We walked down the main street of the large village, and I avoided looking at the gore on the ground. I may be tough, but I still don't like to look at the dead or mutilated if I don't have to. I leave that to the soldiers and psychopaths.

There was one thing that seemed to be missing here however. I just couldn't quite put my finger on it.

"Where are all the Grimm?" Ruby asked.

That was it. There were no Grimm anywhere to be seen. Sure, it had been a while since the attack, but there should at least be at least one Beowolf still around. Instead, the entire area was deserted and quiet.

"We need to search for survivors," Weiss said.

We all nodded in agreement. That was our primary job as Huntsmen, and Huntresses, in training. Investigating the cause of this destruction could be done during the search.

We split into pairs to find survivors, on person from each team to a pair, at Ruby and Weiss' insistence.

The pairs became Ruby and Rowan, Weiss and Ash, Blake and myself, and Yang and Bai.

We each took a cardinal direction from the center of town to look for survivors and clues to the identity of the Grimm that had done this.

* * *

><p><strong>Bai's POV<strong>

Yang and I took the southern area of the village. This area seemed to be in the best condition, leading me to believe that there was at least one survivor in the midst of this destruction.

We went from building to building, searching every room and closet, finding nothing.

At the edge of the village, we were about to turn back when we heard a harsh, labored cough sound from one of the nearby buildings.

We quickly lifted the debris from the entryway to find a middle-aged man with what looked like a sniper-halberd lying next to him.

Upon seeing us enter, his eyes locked onto us.

"You look... a bit young… to be here… after what… just happened…" he said.

"We're the best Beacon has to offer at the moment. Other Huntsmen are out on other missions and couldn't make it."

His eyes filled with a form of pity mixed with sorrow.

"You shouldn't have come," he said.

"What happened here?" Yang asked.

He seemed to be remembering everything that had transpired before he said, "A Grimm that has not been seen in a very, very long time appeared almost out of nowhere. One minute, everything was fine, the next, we were fighting for our lives. Such power it had… I would rather take on a Goliath by myself than have had to fight it, but here I am…"

"We're going to get you out of here," Yang said as she stepped forward, only to have the man hold his hand up to stop her.

"I would only get in the way, and if that _thing_ comes back, that could get you killed. Besides, my Aura has done all it can; I'm out of the fight and fading quickly. Don't protest, your friend can sense it; I can see it in his eyes." He looked me directly in the eye at this.

I reached out with my semblance over light and checked his Aura reserves. They were completely empty and not refilling at all.

"He's right Yang, his Aura isn't regenerating at all, he's lucky to have made it this long."

Yang didn't look at all happy, while the man just looked resigned.

He dug into his back pocket and held a card out to Yang.

"Take this for me will you? Your headmaster is going to need it to make sure my death is recorded properly. If you want to, ask for it back when he's done with it. I don't care. It's what's in the cabinet over there that really needs to be passed on."

We looked at the indicated cabinet. It was a Forever Fall wood cabinet with decorative trees and flower petals carved into it.

He looked at me and said, "Open it."

I walked over to the cabinet, and with a small amount of hesitation, opened it, gasping at what I saw.

Inside was the most magnificent bow I have ever seen. It was a pitch-black re-curve, with ornate white decoration. It also seemed to have some sort of mechanism in the handle. I pressed it, and heard the nearby quiver whir a little bit. Just before looking at the quiver, I noticed one word inscribed in the handle of the bow:

_Archer_

"_How appropriate,"_ I thought.

I then lifted the quiver, but just before I could investigate the contents, the Hunter spoke from behind me.

"Careful with that, my former partner used to experiment with different types of Dust-infused arrows. One bad shake and that thing could explode."

I honestly couldn't tell if he was joking or not.

"Now go on and take it, it's of no use to anyone just sitting there. You need to go find the rest of your group and get out of here before it's too late. Get going and don't worry about me. I didn't become a Hunter to have a long and comfy life."

After one final look at the dying Hunter, we left to look for the others.

I looked at the bow that was still in my hand, and wondered if I had just taken a silent vow without knowing it. Either way, this Grimm wasn't going to find anyone here if it came back.

* * *

><p><strong>Silver's POV<strong>

Apparently, the northern area of Visegrád was the most effected. We found quite a bit of evidence of what had happened after only ten minutes. Gigantic footprints like small craters, and worst of all, the silhouettes of the people who burned from some sort of intense heat. After that little scene, Blake and I mostly tried to search for survivors.

We also took it as a time to ask each other a few questions to keep our minds off the scene of those silhouettes.

There was one question in my mind that I really wanted to ask her, but knew she wasn't going to like, even if she would forgive me for it, and quite possibly be better off afterwards. It also didn't help that I partially knew the answer, but wanted to hear it from her.

I finally gathered my thoughts and asked, "So, Blake… Why do you cover your ears with the bow?"

She visibly stiffened at the question.

"I don't know what you mean," she replied.

"Blake," I said, "It's okay, I've known since the second week of school." That was a lie, but I didn't need her getting suspicious of me.

At that, she rounded on me in shock. "You knew for that long?"

I shrugged. "I'm surprised your team never noticed. Your bow twitched quite a few times during those first couple weeks."

She sighed. "So why aren't you hating me, or even telling my team?"

"I have nothing against Faunus, there's been too much violence already for it to matter anymore, each side has just as much blood on their hands as the other. I didn't tell your team because it was none of my business, besides, Ash and I were worried about how Weiss would react."

She flinched. "Ash knows too?"

I nodded. "My entire team knows. They're just as perceptive as I am."

"And they aren't going to tell anyone?"

"Like I said, not our business who knows or not, but here's some advice, tell your team before they find out in the wrong way."

We continued walking in silence, and I wasn't entirely sure if I had just changed the timeline or not. I hoped to God I had.

Just then, my Scroll rang. I looked at it and saw that Bai was calling.

* * *

><p><strong>A Few Minutes Later<strong>

Blake and I ran up to see that everyone else had already made it to the center of the village. Bai had called all of us and told us that we had to get out of here as soon as possible. He had spoken with a dying Hunter about what had happened and had found that this was Grimm more powerful than a Goliath.

"How far out is the Bullhead?" I asked as we ran up.

"The pilot said about an hour. Let's hope he makes it, it's almost sundown," Ash said.

"Crap," Rowan muttered.

"Guys," I said after a moment of silence, "I have a suspicion of what the Grimm could be…"

"What're you thinking Silver?" Yang asked.

"Well… based on what Bai found out about the attack, along with the clues Blake and I found, I think it could be a-"

Before I could say anything else, a huge, ear-splitting roar was heard. I paled. I was right.

The sound of flapping wings reached my ears. I turned in its direction and saw my suspicions come true.

It was the one Grimm that hadn't been seen in half a millennia. It's white bone mask with a long, sword-like horn, it's pure-black scales, and the bone-like protrusions on its back. It was exactly like its description in the old Grimm-studies book I had found. One of the most feared Grimm of all time.

The Drakon.

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><p><strong>And that's the end of the chapter! OC submissions are going through the process of being judged at the moment and the results will be announced either next chapter, or the chapter after that.<strong>

**Until then, last chance for late submissions! **

**I'll see you guys, next time!**


	19. Visegrád Firefight

**Not much to say at the moment. Just a reminder that the next chapter will most likely be the one where I announce the OC contest winner, other than that, nothing. Enjoy!**

"In order for the light to shine so brightly, the darkness must be present." – Francis Bacon

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><p><strong>Chapter 16: Visegrád Firefight<strong>

**Silver's POV**

I dodged to the side as the Drakon took another swipe at me. This had been going on for a while now. I was keeping the large Grimm's attention while everyone else tried to do some real damage.

I started running in a semicircle, firing my revolvers as I went, trying to find a soft spot. I slid under its arm as it slashed again from the front. We were getting nowhere with this.

Weiss was attempting to keep it from moving too much with her Glyphs, but they were failing at an uncomfortable rate.

Bai was using some Dust-infused arrows in an attempt to see if it had a weakness to a certain kind of Dust.

Ruby and Rowan were searching for any chinks it may have in its bony armor. I could hear their shots in the background of what I was doing and knew that they had to have a lucky break at some point.

Yang was firing off rounds from her gauntlets to keep it at least somewhat off-balance. At the very least she was making sure it couldn't take my head off with a lucky shot.

Blake was mostly watching my back. She didn't have the same kind of effective range attack as the others and we didn't need her getting injured during this fight. She jumped in if I moved too slowly to dodge or aimed for the eyes with her pistol to keep it off me for a couple seconds.

This strategy went on for a few more minutes without incident, a few close calls, but no serious injuries to speak of.

That is of course, until it caught me off guard and hit me in the back as I jumped over its claw as it slashed again.

"Silver!" Blake called.

I rolled over to see the Drakon looking at me. The most unnerving part was the fact that it was actually looking me in the eye. In those green eyes, I saw one thing that told its age and difference from other Grimm. It was intelligent. The Drakon had learned from past battles and knew the best way to kill us off, all it had to do was lure us into a false sense of security by letting us carry out a plan to try to take it down.

The worst part… I could tell it was holding back, it was playing with us, and this may be my final moment, just looking into those green eyes.

It opened its mouth and I saw red and green flames forming at the back of its throat and come billowing towards me.

All of a sudden, when the flames were halfway towards me, time seemed to slow down. It wasn't like some of the moments I would feel when I would have an adrenaline rush. This felt… different. As the flames were about to come within range of me feeling the scorching heat, a figure with a sword appeared in front of me and stabbed his sword into the ground, causing a wall of ice to form, blocking the flames from reaching me.

The figure took their sword out of the ground and turned halfway to me, head tilted back, trench coat and tie billowing in the wind.

"Long time, no see Silver," he said, just as casually as I had greeted him last time.

"I suppose it's been a little while hasn't it Davin?" I replied, looking around, "Where's Gwyn?"

"Right behind you," a voice said.

I turned and saw the blonde approaching, the red scarf I had given her a couple years ago flowing behind her.

"We were on our way to investigate the village attack, but it looks like you beat us to it," she said.

I smirked. "That's what happens when you go to Beacon. You hear things a little faster than others."

Undeterred by my rebuttal, she continued, "At least you saved the fun part for when we finally arrived."

"Right…" I said, "Thanks for the save. We should get going. The others won't be able to deal with the Drakon by themselves at this rate.

They nodded and we ran out from behind the ice shield. Everyone looked at Davin and Gwyn in surprise, probably wondering where they had come from.

I quickly shouted, "They're with us, no time for explanations. Ruby, Yang, this is Davin and Gwyn."

The two pairs quickly greeted each other before returning their attention to the Drakon.

Gwyn shifted her sword to an assault rifle while Davin let his sword-whip loose.

* * *

><p>After what seemed like a lifetime, we were starting to see some scratches form along its armor. Many of them from Davin's sword and Yang's explosive rounds.<p>

We were slowly tiring the creature out, but we too were starting to get tired, and I worried that we may run out of steam before it went down.

I then noticed something that I should have noticed before. Its underbelly had no armor. I didn't notice before because of all the armor on its back and chest. Even the head, wings, and legs still had heavy armor on them.

Acting in a bit of desperation for a hit to damage it for real, I charged forward in a surge of lightning. I moved at the speed of light to avoid the Drakon's attacks as I made my way under it.

As I reached my target, I drew my swords and charged them with lightning and started slashing its unarmored hide for all it was worth.

The thing I didn't take into account was it swinging its sword-like tail underneath itself to slash me.

The force of the swipe blew me out from under its belly and into a tree. I was dazed for the moment, and all I could do was watch what happened next.

The pain I had inflicted on the beast was enough to make it lash out, breaking Weiss' Glyphs. It then charged the group randomly, catching Ruby off guard. It was about to hit her, and none of us were close enough to stop it, when a swirl of shadows blocked it, and then sent it back to its original position.

My eyes widened when I saw who was standing in front of Ruby.

It was Indigo, looking half annoyed and half bored. His tomahawks were held up in a defensive position.

"Jeez," he said, "You guys really don't invite me to do anything do you? I come up here to look into one of our safe houses going dark and I find all of you getting your butts handed to you by a giant lizard? I thought you were better than that."

Ruby looked a little afraid, and extremely confused at what had just happened.

"Why did you save me?" she asked the older teen.

"Boss didn't say I had to kill anyone, besides there's no cameras here to prove or disprove my interaction with you."

Team RWBY continued to watch him with suspicion while SABR, Gwyn, and Davin started to understand what he was saying.

"You really don't like the work they give you do you?" Ash asked.

"I like to keep my hands clean. Life is so much simpler when you're not wanted for homicide. I do it because my 'employer' wants it done, and I'd rather not piss them off."

"We'll talk about your career issues later. We have a bigger problem to deal with at the moment," Bai said, turning back to the Drakon.

We all nodded in agreement and started sizing it up for more places to exploit for a weakness. Those of us with more effective close range weapons charged it while the long-range fighters kept shooting.

We made it within fifteen yards of the creature when it suddenly took to the air and hovered above us. It started to flap its wings, causing a massive wind, which kept picking up speed until everyone, including those fighting from a distance, was blown back.

I landed flat on my back, almost hitting a tree headfirst. We weren't going to last much longer. Yang was getting back up and taking more shots at the Drakon. Ruby and Rowan had gotten back to trying to find a weak point in the armor. Indigo was trying to make a ball of shadow to hit the creature with while Bai did the same thing with his light. Gwyn was laying down fire with her assault rifle, albeit not doing much, but it was better than nothing.

Everyone else seemed to be out for the moment. At this rate, we were going to get tired out and killed, unless… I used _it_.

"_NO!"_ I thought, _"It's not ready yet!"_

The only problem was, if I didn't try, we were probably going to die anyway.

Even if it wasn't ready, I didn't have enough energy to activate it. Unless we had a bunch of lightning Dust lying around…

That's it! Weiss has all kinds of Dust on her! I needed to find her as fast as possible and see if the others had any lightning Dust on them as well. I was going to need as much as possible.

It was time to play my ace in the hole.

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><p><strong>That's the end of Chapter 16! Next chapter, the new OC will be announced and a certain technique will be revealed! Please leave a review of what you think the technique is! I've left clues all over the story as to its identity. Comments on what I could do better or what you would like to see are also appreciated! Follows help the morale of those helping with this story, so please follow as well!<strong>

**The light at the end of the tunnel is getting bigger, and Volume 1 is almost done.**

**And as another announcement, a new story that a couple of the co-writers have been pushing for is now in production. Not going to give too much away, but it basically deals with what happened with Davin and Gwyn.**

**That said, I'll see you guys… Next time!**


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